PORT ANGELES — In range of top-ranked Bellevue for a half, Peninsula College’s upset bid unraveled in a 75-62 loss to the Bulldogs.
“Bellevue is number one for a reason,” Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman said after Saturday’s contest.
“They have depth, size and guys that can shoot. We knew that going in, and it was a big test for us.”
The Pirates weathered two early 8-0 runs by the Bulldogs and trailed by as much as 29-17 with 3:28 to go before halftime.
Peninsula answered with an 8-0 run of its own over 49 seconds, fueled by a 3-pointer from Ryley Callaghan and buckets from Jeremiah Hobbs and Deonte Dixon to trail 29-25 with 2:39 to go until intermission.
“We got down in the first half and showed fight,” Freeman said.
At the break, the Pirates were down 34-29.
A basket from Jal Deng opened the scoring after halftime and pulled Peninsula within three points, but the Pirates would come no closer.
Deng led Peninsula in scoring with 18 points, including hitting all eight of his free-throw attempts.
The game came apart for Peninsula in the second half in the face of the Bulldogs’ determined drives to the rim on offense and stiff defense.
“Actually, I thought we showed fight all game, but we just couldn’t sustain momentum defensively,” Freeman said.
“And offensively we shot 25 percent in the second half, and it’s hard to win games when you do that.”
Bellevue worked to get interior shot attempts in the second half, with guards Jalen Ward and Dom Holub using their speed and quickness to bounce past defenders and get inside to the basket.
Ward led a balanced Bulldogs attack with 16 points and Holub was right behind with 15.
When the Pirates collapsed defensively to provide help defense, the Bellevue ballhandlers found post Anthony McLaughlin for inside scores.
McLaughlin put up all 14 of his points after halftime.
Peninsula did have one chance to put together a run in the second half after Callaghan was fouled shooting a 3-pointer.
He knocked down all three free throws and the Pirates trailed 50-42 with 11:01 to go.
Callaghan added 15 points for the Pirates.
Peninsula’s offense stalled after the freebies, as the Bulldogs’ stifling defense forced turnovers and contested shot attempts. A 17-1 run over the next 5:14 gave Bellevue its largest lead of the game, 67-44, with 5:47 to play.
“We tried to open the court space up a little more [in the second half] to give our guards more space to work with, and we wanted to go inside with JD [Deng] and Jeremiah, who was playing well for us offensively,” Freeman said.
“But it came down to us having to get multiple stops defensively. And when you get stops and you can’t finish, it gets hard because you don’t get that charge, that energy that you need to sustain the effort it takes to knock off a team like Bellevue.”
The Pirates (2-3, 9-8), will square off for fourth place in the Northwest Athletic Conference North Division with Skagit Valley (2-3, 10-7) on Wednesday.
Bellevue 75, Peninsula 62
Bellevue 34 41 — 75
Peninsula 29 33 — 62
Individual scoring
Bellevue (75)
Ward 16, Holub 15, McLaughlin 14, Nevin 14, Jordan 7, Smith 4, McIrvin 3, Medalia 2, Zehr.
Peninsula (62)
Deng 18, Callaghan 15, Dixon 11, Hobbs 8, Domach 4, Cook 4, Ironside 2, Nibler. Mayeux.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsualdailynews.com.
