PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles and Olympic went five minutes without scoring a point in their Olympic League 2A girls basketball opener.
No big deal for the Roughriders. It means the defense is working.
And there’s no doubt their defense was on point in their 37-22 win Monday night.
“They might be a little more worried, and we’re like, what’s new?” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said.
“But, hey, if we’re playing a 12-10 game, at least we’re ahead by two.
“We don’t fret.”
The Riders improve to 6-0 and have yet to allow a team to score more than 27 points this season.
The Trojans (0-1, 0-2), who are expected to be one of the contenders in the Olympic League 2A Division this season, entered Monday averaging 53 points per game. Port Angeles held them to less than half that, and Olympic made only 16 percent of its field goals.
The defense definitely set the tone, but the Riders are used to that. Defense is their thing. It was the offense, which has struggled at times this season, that had them excited after the game.
“I think we played pretty well tonight. It was a pretty exciting game. We finally got our offense together and didn’t score only six points in the first half,” senior guard Maddie Boe said.
“I think we all were just confident enough to hit our shots when we were open, and we hit them down the stretch.”
Said junior post Nizhoni Wheeler: “I think we just executed well on offense and drove more and just made a lot of points.
“We slowed it down more and we didn’t rush the ball into turnovers.”
But as it has the past few seasons, the defense set the tone for the Riders.
It took Olympic 3 minutes, 23 seconds to score its first points of the game, and 4:27 more to score its next points, and Port Angeles led 9-4 at the end of the first quarter.
Those were actually some of the Trojans’ more prosperous times, as they were flustered throughout the game by the Riders’ zone defense.
“We were willing to do a variety of defenses, but they were struggling so much with our zone that we just didn’t want to change,” Poindexter said.
“Like, let’s let them solve it.”
Port Angeles’ Katyn Flores hit a 3-pointer off an inbound pass early in the second quarter, and with 5:39 left in the half, Olympic’s Danielle Monzon made a bucket to cut the Riders’ lead to 12-6.
Neither team scored again until the final minute of the period.
Emily Johnson hit a 3-pointer off an assist by Boe with 51 seconds left, and Cheyenne Wheeler drove for layup with 10 seconds remaining to make it 17-6 at halftime.
Olympic’s Katie Campana had a look at a 3 at the buzzer, but Boe blocked it.
Campana, who is Poindexter’s pick for the best shooter in the league, struggled the entire game and only scored five points.
“In our zone defense . . . we talk a lot, and I think that’s a big thing,” Boe said
“We’re not loud in our defense, but we definitely know where everyone is. And especially Katie, she’s a pretty good shooter, so we have to get out on her and know where she is at all times.”
The Trojans ended their scoring drought with a pair of free throws by Litia Kalauati a minute into the third quarter, but it took them six minutes to make their first field goal of the second half, meaning they went 11:39 in between field goals.
Campana hit a jumper at the two-minute mark and scored off an offensive rebound a minute later as Olympic’s offense had its best stretch of the game at the end of the third quarter.
Monzon finished it by banking a 3 at the buzzer, and suddenly Port Angeles’ lead was down to single digits, 23-16.
“We were on the bench [saying], that was fine, that was a great shot, who cares?” Poindexter said.
“So what? We’re up by seven, just play. That was what it was, whatever, don’t worry about it. Let’s go back and get a bucket, you know, let’s keep scoring.”
Johnson scored a bucket to make the lead 25-16, but a free throw each by Kiki Mitchell and Campana brought it back to 25-18 with 6:36 to play.
After Hayley Baxley drew a charging foul for the Riders, sophomore Brennan Gray hit a jumper that made the lead 27-18 and flipped the stagnant momentum to Port Angeles.
“I told her that that was a big bucket,” Poindexter said.
It started an 11-0 run that lasted until there was 1:37 left in the game. By then, the score was 36-18 and the game was all but over.
The Riders’ cushion really got fluffy when Olympic tried to press.
On one press attempt, Nizhoni Wheeler took an inbound pass deep in the Trojans’ end of the court. Somehow, all of the other nine players on the court were behind her, so she dribbled it down the court for an easy layup.
“Poindexter just says the post can bring the ball up, so I was like, I’ll go for it,” Wheeler said.
“And then I remember watching Bailee Jones when I was little, and she just came down [and scored], and I just remembered that.
“I thought they were going to come down because they were all fast, but no one came.”
Poindexter credited former Port Angeles boys coach Lee Sinnes for teaching him that press break, and the Riders have utilized it ever since, including when Jones was manning the post.
Wheeler led the Riders with 10 points and nine rebounds.
“She had a great night,” Poindexter said.
“Very calm. And she dealt with physicality well, she didn’t retaliate, she kept her composure extremely well.
“Very mature game from her, I thought. Great leadership.”
Johnson had a solid all-around game for Port Angeles, finishing with nine points and five steals and tying Wheeler for the team lead with nine rebounds.
Boe, playing with a brace on her ankle after injuring it last week, scored four points and dished out five assists.
Defeating Olympic so decisively probably gives notice to the rest of the league that the Riders are back near the top after dropping to the middle of the pack in 2014-15, but Poindexter downplayed the big-picture meaning of the victory.
There are 11 more league games left, including one at Olympic on Jan. 15, and Poindexter anticipates the Trojans, the defending league champions, will play much better.
“It’d be fine if we lost it because it’s a long season,” Poindexter said of Monday’s game.
“Every game’s going to be a battle, and I think our kids know it’s going to be a four- or five-team race. And they’ve also been around. They’ve seen, like, on any given night, things happen.
“It’s a big deal emotionally to start the league season well, but nobody’s pretending that it means a whole lot, because they know there’s some good teams coming and any team can beat any other team, mostly, on any given night.
“So I think we’re mature enough to go, ‘Hey, that felt good,’ but . . .”
But . . .
“It does, it feels awesome,” Poindexter said, “because they beat us twice last year.”
Port Angeles plays its final league game of 2015 tonight at North Mason (5-1).
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
