PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s basketball team relied on a ferocious defense to win its Pirates Classic game 76-62 Sunday night against Tacoma.
The win improved the men’s record to 4-2 on the young season, not including a COVID forfeit over BC Prep, though they have yet to really hit their stride offensively.
“We made a few more shots,” said head coach Donald Rollman. The Pirates shot 7-for-24 on their 3-point shots, not great, but better than some recent games. “We had some quality looks and made enough when we needed to.”
What he was proud of is his team is one of the leaders in points allowed at 59 points a game. In four out of the six Pirates’ games, they have allowed 62 points or fewer.
“We have so much toughness and we’re so good defensively,” Rollman said.
The Pirates lost to Lane on Saturday night in a game in which Peninsula shot just 2-of-18 from the 3-point line and scored only 50 points.
Rollman said at halftime Sunday, he told his players to “play with some joy.”
“I told them to loosen up. They played with joy, they just played together,” he said.
Indicative of that great defense was Pirates post player Isaiah Sampson, who had 10 rebounds, four blocked shots and affected a number of other shots.
One of Sampson’s best plays didn’t pick up a statistic. A Tacoma player went up for a 17-foot jump shot and Sampson leaped to perfect position to block it, forcing the Tacoma shooter to literally throw the ball sideways at the rim to reset the shot clock. No stat, but as good as a block.
The Pirates led nearly the entire game, quickly jumping out to a 14-5 lead after a pair of 3-pointers by KeAndre Hunter-Holiday and Jaylin Reed and two-point buckets by Reed and Roosevelt Williams Jr.
Tacoma made a run to cut the lead to 27-24, but that was the closest the Titans got all game. Every time Tacoma made a small run, the Pirates responded by shutting the Titans down and making a run of their own.
Helping the Pirates immensely was some solid free-throw shooting. Peninsula College shot 10-for-10 from the charity stripe in the second half.
Probably the Titans’ last chance to really make a game of it came with about nine minutes left after a 12-4 Tacoma run made the score 51-45. Jase McCullough, younger brother of former Pirate Jalon McCullough (now an assistant coach at Alaska-Anchorage), drew a foul and made a couple of free throws and then got an offensive rebound and a bucket.
Hunter-Holiday and Reed were fouled on ensuing possessions and made four straight free throws. The Pirates quickly blew the lead out to 62-47. Tacoma never got within single digits for the rest of the game.
Reed hit three 3-pointers, shot 6-for-6 from the line and led the Pirates with 25 points, while Sampson had nine to go with his rebounds and blocks. Marcus Rodgers came off the bench for nine points and Williams had eight as 11 different Pirates scored.
Peninsula outrebounded Tacoma 38 to 17 and had 14 offensive rebounds to the Titans’ two.
Peninsula is done with home games in 2021. The Pirates will play Clackamas in the Edmonds Classic on Saturday. They will not return home until Jan. 5.
Peninsula 76, Tacoma 62
Tacoma 26 36 — 62
Home 33 43 — 76
Tacoma (62) — Franklin 20, McGinnis 16, Parker 6, Lewis 6, Young 5, Joseph 3, ford 3, Mordi 2.
Peninsula (76) — Reed 25, Sampson 9, Rodgers 9, Williams 8, Hunter-Holiday 7, McCullough 6, Garcia 3, Harris 3, Medlock 2, Welsh 2, Dean.
