PORT ANGELES — Not much has come easy for the Peninsula College men’s basketball team during its seven-game winning streak.
All seven games have been battles, and each time the Pirates have had to find a way to grind out another victory.
That was the case Wednesday, when Peninsula defeated Olympic 72-58 in a game that was close until the final minute.
The Pirates (9-2, 16-9) have now ensured that they will open the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament at home by clinching at least a top-two finish in the North Region.
Peninsula can clinch the region title by beating Bellevue on Saturday at home in a matchup of the NWAC’s two hottest teams — the Bulldogs have won five in a row after losing their first six North Region contests.
Wednesday’s 14-point margin was the largest of the Pirates’ current win streak, but it wasn’t any easier than the previous six.
There were no significant swings of momentum by either team until Peninsula finished the game on an 11-0 run over the final 2 minutes, 57 seconds.
“Just toughness,” Peninsula’s Darrion Daniels said. “We talk about it all the time, and at the end it really showed. Toughness.”
Peninsula scored the game’s first seven points, but Olympic, the last team to beat the Pirates, got back in the game, and for more than 30 minutes thereafter neither team budged much.
“They’re tough. They’re tough,” Pirates coach Mitch Freeman said of the Rangers.
“They’re so strong and they’re physical inside. They’re so long inside.”
Peninsula went on a 6-0 run, the game’s longest since the first two minutes of the game, to lead 57-51 with 6:17 to play.
The Rangers again came back, and two free throws by DeeShawn Tucker brought it to 61-58 with 2:57 remaining.
That’s when the Pirates finally pulled away, holding Olympic scoreless for the rest of the game.
“I thought we were getting consecutive stops on the defense end, rebounding the ball, and then converting our free throws – really, because it came down to free throws for three or four minutes in there,” Freeman said.
Peninsula made 23 of 28 at the free-throw line (82 percent), including 7 of 8 in the last two minutes.
They won the rebounding battle 48-39. Malik Mayeux pulled down a game-high 11. He also scored 13 points for his second straight double-double.
“I was just boxing out my man and looking for the ball, waiting for it to hit the rim, and just go after it,” Mayeux said.
“I feel like every rebound’s mine, so I was just going up and getting it.”
Daniels scored a game-high 20 points — he was 9 for 12 on free throws — and helped hold Olympic’s Brian Neal, the NWAC’s second-leading scorer, to 18 points.
“Brian Neal is good. We thought we did a really good job on him and he still had 18 points,” Freeman said.
“I thought Darrion did an exceptional job down the stretch on him. And Darrion’s not 100 percent, he wasn’t feeling well the last couple days, so it was good to see him do a good job on Neal.”
When the Pirates face Bellevue (5-6, 14-12) on Saturday at 6 p.m., it will have been a full month since their last loss (81-72 to Olympic on Jan. 20).
Edmonds (6-5, 17-7) dropped its fourth straight game Wednesday to give Peninsula a three-game lead in the North with three games to play.
If the Pirates win Saturday and clinch the region championship, it will be their first region title since 2007-08.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
