PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College fought off a spirited challenge from Everett, pulling away late in the second half to earn an 88-79 men’s basketball victory and keep hold of the top spot in the NWAC North Division title chase.
The back-and-forth affair featured 10 lead changes and seven ties, and was played at an energetic, almost frenzied pace, complete with plenty of communication from a talkative Trojans squad.
“It was hard fought,” Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman said of Saturday’s game. “The second round of [division] games are always so critical in terms of the preparation process. I thought Everett did a great job. Everett has some guys that can flat-out play.”
So do the Pirates, a team stocked with scorers, shooters and plenty of length on the boards.
One such player, starting point guard Jalon McCullough, who scored 23 points, agreed with his coach.
“I think both teams played really well,” he said.
“Everett came in shot the ball and attacked the rim really hard. It put a lot of pressure on the defense and forced us to stay in front of the ball.
“Near the end we trusted our guys, which is what we do, and just continued to work hard throughout the night.”
The lead exchanged hands throughout the first half, with Peninsula’s 3-point shooting boosting the Pirates to a 42-39 halftime lead.
Peninsula’s 6-foot-9 Omar Lo added two treys late in the half, and the Pirates hit 5 of 11 from long range in the opening 20 minutes, and 9 of 21 for the game. Everett managed to hit just 6 of 24 from deep.
McCullough also was working hard on both the offensive and defensive ends to spark Peninsula.
“How about his stat line?,” Freeman said.
“He had 23 points, four rebounds, six assists and 0 turnovers in 34 minutes. That’s huge for our team. And we got back to what we need to do on a consistent basis: take care of the basketball and create more shot opportunities. And we shot the ball a lot better than we did at Port Angeles High School [in a loss to Shoreline last Wednesday].”
The Pirates also held the Trojans’ leading scorer, the baby-faced Brevin Brown, to just eight points, 14 off his season average of 22.57.
“We had a huge emphasis on Brevin Brown, their leading scorer,” Freeman said.
“Jalon, the assignment was to guard him, and he did a great job. But it was a team effort. We look at it as not just your job, it’s our job from a team perspective and we did a good job but they had some other guys step up. [Dartavious] Young did well for them and the [Jason] James kid came out of the blue in the first half, but second half we were able to slow him down.”
Gio Jackson led Everett with 17 points, Young had 16 and James scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half.
Lo gave Peninsula the lead for good by knifing to the rim and scoring on back-to-back drives with a high degree of difficulty with just under 10 minutes to play.
He finished with 15 points.
“He’s such a matchup nightmare for teams,” Freeman said. “And when he starts hitting 3s it draws the defense out and makes him even more of a threat. He’s done a great job of embracing his role of attacking the basket and getting offensive rebounds or keeping the ball alive.”
Everett would pull within three, at 72-69 at the 5-minute mark, but a series of consecutive turnovers took down the Trojans.
Down the stretch Cole Rabedeaux hit 4 of 4 free throws. Rabedeaux also was 3 for 3 from the floor, scoring nine points with five rebounds and an assist off the bench.
“I think Cole is starting to adjust to the college game more and more,” Freeman said. “And that’s great to see because he puts so much effort and hard work into getting better. And we need him to be successful for us to be the team we need to be.”
McCullough agreed.
“If you can have somebody come off the bench that can score and defend as well as the dude who is coming out of the game?,” he said. “Cole’s my guy and I love playing with him.”
Peninsula (7-2, 16-5) visits Olympic (2-7, 5-17) on Wednesday.
Peninsula 88, Everett 79
Everett 39 40— 79
Peninsula 42 46— 88
Everett (79) — Cole 7, Jackson 17, James 14, Deubel 7, Diggs 3, Brown 8, Moffatt 5, Grayson 2, Young 16.
Peninsula (88) — McCullough 23, Daniels 16, Lo 15, Baker 15, Rabedeaux 9, Warren 5, Baham 3, Velez 2.
