VANCOUVER — Better results on the defensive end and valuing the basketball and limiting turnovers were the focus for the Peninsula College men in two weekend road games against Centralia and Clark.
The Pirates achieved those aims while picking up two wins against teams heading in opposite directions.
Peninsula (5-4) rallied against winless Centralia 80-78 on Friday and knocked off previously undefeated Clark 80-77 in overtime Saturday.
“Our focus was solely on us this weekend in terms of just getting better defensively and not turning over the basketball as much,” Pirates coach Mitch Freeman said.
“Our guys did a good job of that in both games.”
Peninsula trailed 12-0 early against the Clark Penguins, before ending the first half on a 39-21 run to lead 39-33 at the break.
Darrion Daniels sparked the Pirates with 12 points in 10 minutes of play before leaving with an ankle injury that is not expected to be serious.
“We were never really worried,” Freeman said of the early deficit.
“We were getting good looks at the basket, just having a hard time getting them to fall. And they were getting some makes from some guys we did not have listed as shooters.”
Freeman said Peninsula extended its lead in the second half, but Clark clawed back to send the game to overtime.
The Pirates trailed by as much as six in overtime, but stayed together and reclaimed the lead for good on a Deonte Dixon 3-pointer.
“We wanted to expose their zone defense in this game, they played a really tight 2-3 zone,” Freeman said.
“Deonte went baseline to baseline and found an opening in the corner. One of their bigs rotated out on him but Deonte got a clean look and hit it.”
Ryley Callaghan had drawn the defense to him and swung the ball to Dixon to setup the shot.
Callaghan finished 13 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
Dixon scored 17 to lead Peninsula.
Freshman Alex Baham drained 4 og 6 3-point shots and scored 12 points for the Pirates.
“That was really encouraging,” Freeman said.
“He’s a really good shooter and he’s starting to see things a little more clearly at this level.”
Chris Reis hit 3 of 5 on 3s against Clark’s zone.
Reis also played a big role in Peninsula’s win over Centralia, according to Freeman.
Reis scored eight points, with three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“He was the X factor in that game,” Freeman said.
“He took three charges, hit a couple of real big shots for us.
“Chris is a sophomore and guys on the team trust him.”
Freeman said the Pirates didn’t play badly against the Trailblazers.
“They hit a high percentage of shots and they were playing in their home gym,” Freeman said.
Peninsula trailed 40-33 at halftime but worked to get higher-quality shots in the second half.
The Pirates hit 13 of 26 from the field after halftime, while limiting Centralia to 12 of 34 shooting.
Dimitri Amos led all scorers with 22 points for Peninsula. He added seven rebounds and two blocks.
Callaghan scored 20 points, including hitting 8 of 9 from the free-throw line.
“They banked in a couple of 3s with less than 30 seconds to go, one less than 10 seconds to go [to make it close],” Freeman said
Peninsula will face Lower Columbia (4-4) in the first round of the South Region Crossover in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday.
Peninsula 80, Clark 77, OT
Peninsula 39 29 12— 80
Clark 33 35 9— 77
Individual scoring
Peninsula (80)
Dixon 17, Callaghan 13, Daniels 12, Baham 12, Amos 12, Reis 9, Hobbs 3, Mayeux 2.
Clark (77)
Baral 19, Berg 14, Windler 12, Mathis 10, Baze 8, Paulson 6, Hawkins 5, Martin 2, Stephens 1.
Peninsula 80, Centralia 78
Peninsula 31 47 — 80
Centralia 40 38 — 78
Individual scoring
Peninsula (80)
Amos 22, Callaghan 20, Dixon 16, Reis 8, Mayeux 8, Hobbs 4, Daniels 2.
Centralia (78)
Broughton 17, Warner 12, Donkor 11, V. Griffin 10, K. Griffin 9, Ehrhorn 8, Fjeld 6, Keith 5.
