PORT ANGELES — The Skagit Valley Cardinals utilized a number of scoring runs to peck away at the Peninsula College lead and eventually plunder an 89-87 NWAC North Division men’s basketball victory from the Pirates.
Peninsula not only lost Wednesday’s game, sophomore night for Darrion Daniels, Omar Lo, Alex Baham and Alex Losee, but the Pirates (8-4, 17-7) missed out on the chance to clinch an NWAC playoff berth and fell out of a first-place tie with red-hot Shoreline (9-3, 16-7).
With two regular-season games remaining the Pirates trail the Dolphins, winners of seven-straight games, by one game in the fight for a No. 1 seed to the NWAC Tournament.
Peninsula sits a game ahead of Whatcom (7-5, 15-8) and Bellevue (7-5, 17-10) for the division’s second seed to the NWAC Men’s Tournament’s first round at Everett Community College on March 9. They will need to win one of their last two to clinch a playoff spot, and win out and get help to repeat as North Division champs.
The Pirates were hot from long range to open the game, building a 32-11 advantage midway through the first half on the strength of 3-point baskets by Jalon McCullough, Cole Rabedeaux and Trent Warren.
Skagit Valley and Peninsula seesawed back and forth to head into intermission. The Cardinals posted a 14-0 run to close within 32-25, the Pirates answering back with a 10-0 push of their own and Skagit closing out the half on a 7-0 spree to trail 45-34 at halftime.
McCullough had 15 of his game-high 25 points in the first half for Peninsula.
Sophomore Alex Losee sparked the Pirates with a put-back basket and a big block defensively that eventually translated into an Alex Baham 3-pointer and a 52-36 lead with just under 18 minutes to play.
It was mostly Cardinals after that.
Skagit took advantage of a number of Peninsula turnovers to go on a 24-5 run over the next 7:41 and take its first lead of the game on a pair of Ben Ayre free throws with 10:03 to play.
“They were basically running with almost five guards,” Pirates coach Mitch Freeman said.
“Even with [Marquis] Gurske and [Cameron] Howell, their 4 and 5 [post players] they are still pretty athletic. They spread us out and we tried to minimize that [defensively] by going zone a little bit, and I thought that stopped the bleeding a little bit, but they get so deep in the penetration, and they hit some big shots in the second half.”
Offensively, Peninsula had trouble getting the ball inside for looks or outside for 3-point attempts.
“I thought they made it hard for us to reverse the basketball,” Freeman said. “They did some good things from that perspective that made it hard for us to attack. I don’t think we were as agressive as we needed to be. They slowed us down offensively and that took a toll. We were just trying to make more happen off the bounce instead of driving and kicking, so that hurt us.”
The Cardinals lead grew to 81-72 with 2:26 to play. Peninsula needed defensive stops and to score quickly down the stretch. And they were able to do enough to get back into the game in the final seconds.
Free throws from Warren, Rabedeaux and Daniels and a banked-in 3 from McCullough pulled the Pirates within 87-84 with 12 seconds to go.
Daniels then stole Skagit’s loose inbounds pass and attacked the hoop, but he was challenged at the rim and his layup attempt was off.
Skagit’s Cody Starr hit 1 of 2 free throws to keep Peninsula hanging around, and another McCullough 3 with 2.3 seconds to go pulled Peninsula within 88-87.
But the Cardinals managed a long outlet pass and were fouled with 0.4 seconds left, a figure that Freeman and the Pirates disputed to no avail.
“We have two [games] left, and they are big,” Freeman said. “We have to focus on Edmonds, we can’t control what the other teams do, so it is important.”
Skagit Valley 89, Peninsula 87
Skagit 34 55 — 89
Peninsula 45 42 — 87
Skagit Valley (89) — Howell 20, Kidd 14, Starr 14, Ayre 12, Gurske 12, Hammons 10, Coe 5, Hunt 2.
Peninsula (87) — McCullough 25, Daniels 14, Lo 12, Rabedeaux 12, Baham 9, Warren 7, Losee 4, Baker 2, Velez 2.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
