EVERETT — The Peninsula College women’s basketball team Sunday night shot 11 percent from 3-point range, 50 percent from the free-throw line, had two starters in foul trouble through most of the fourth quarter and got two points from leading scorer Millie Long, who made a gutty return after two weeks out with a sprained ankle.
Imagine what this team could do if everything clicked.
Despite everything that didn’t go right, the Peninsula women, now 24-3 on the season, beat Portland 64-59 in the NWAC Tournament Elite Eight, qualifying for the Final Four on Saturday.
What went right for the Pirates? Defense, rebounding, winning the gritty statistics and huge second halves from post Itaua Tuisaula and guard Keelie-Jade Smith.
“[Tuisaula] was an absolute beast down low,” said coach Alison Crumb. Tuisaula scored 21 points, 13 of them in the second half, on 10-for-17 shooting, all in the paint. Smith scored all 11 of her points in the second half as the Pirates withstood some clutch shots from the Panthers to maintain a 2- to 5-point lead almost the entire second half.
Smith had zero points at the half. “I told her we wouldn’t be here without her. I told her ‘you be you.’ She doesn’t lose confidence in her herself,” Crumb said.
The Pirates will face a beast in the Final Four semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday — Clackamas. The Cougars, the No. 2 seed out of a very loaded South Region, are 26-3 and qualified for the Final Four by beating Walla Walla 65-51.
The Cougars have the NWAC’s leading scorer in Brooke Bullock (19.4 points a game) and have played in 21 games this year in which they’ve scored 80 or more points — and nine games with 90 or more points.
The Pirates, on the other hand, have played 13 games in which they’ve held their opponents under 50 points.
“I really think we’re the best defensive team in the NWAC,” Crumb said.
Sunday’s game
The Pirates led almost the entire game with their biggest lead at 29-20 early in the second quarter. Sequim’s Hope Glasser was huge in the first half, scoring 11 points before the break to pace the Pirates. She finished with 15 points.
The Panthers rallied in the second half, though they never took the lead. Portland managed a brief tie at 36-36 and was still down just 50-49 early in the fourth quarter after some clutch buckets from inside post Iris Cubit (who finished with 23) and outside shooter Tynesha Parnell (who hit four 3-pointers).
But the Pirates responded with clutch basket after clutch basket from Tuisaula and Smith. At one point, Tuisaula, who played much of the fourth quarter with four fouls, scored three straight shots to open the lead back to 58-53.
With Long out of the game after fouling out, Parnell hit her final 3-pointer with 1:40 left to make it 61-59, but Smith got a bucket at 1:14 left to make it 63-59. She added a free throw in the final seconds, all but icing the game.
“When we needed something, we got something,” Crumb said.
Some of the shooting stats were ugly (2-for-18 from 3-point range and 8-for-16 from the free-throw line), but there were some pretty stats for Peninsula. The Pirates had 48 rebounds to Portland’s 35. Peninsula had 10 steals, with Long and Port Angeles’ Madison Cooke leading the way with three each. The Pirates forced 19 Portland turnovers to only 11 for Peninsula. Finally, and perhaps the biggest stat of all, Peninsula got off 75 shots to Portland’s 57.
Tuisaula led all players with 12 rebounds, while Glasser and Long each had six and Cooke five. Smith added four assists.
Despite only scoring two points, Long was crucial to the win, taking care of most of the ball-handling, running the offense and playing tough defense all game.
“[Long] was very disruptive. She was upset with herself [over her shooting], but she’s a game changer. She gives us confidence,” Crumb said.
Crumb said there’s no reason the Pirates can’t win it all against high-powered Clackamas, Lower Columbia and 29-0 Lane, the three other teams in the Final Four.
“If we do get everyone playing well … I don’t think we’ve reached our best point yet,” she said.
Peninsula 64, Portland 59
PC 16 15 19 14 — 64
Port. 12 13 19 15 — 59
Peninsula (64) — Tuisaula 21, Glasser 15, Smith 11, Cooke 6, Brown 4, Camacho-Villafuerte 3, Long 2, Kamae 2.
Portland (59) — Cubit 23, Parnell 16, Gultry 9, Meadows 6, Furtin 3, Zhen 2.
