KENNEWICK — The Peninsula men’s basketball team’s missed 10 shots in the final four minutes to bring its upset bid of Edmonds to a grinding halt.
After going toe to toe with the top-ranked Tritons for much of the game, Pirates fell 69-57 in the Northwest Athletic Conference semifinals Monday night at the Toyota Center.
The Pirates face Green River today at 2 p.m. in a fight for third place.
“It was a tough-fought game, but I’m super proud of our guys,” Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman said.
“It’s obviously a team we know very, very well.”
This was the fourth meeting this season between the NWAC North Region foes.
“They were ready for the game. I don’t think we weren’t ready. I think their depth was an advantage,” Freeman said.
“They can bring in guy after guy after guy, and that kind of wore us down.
That, and we’re on our third game in three days.”
Peninsula had a constant struggle getting to the free-throw line, only attempting nine foul shots to 22 for Edmonds.
“One thing we couldn’t do is get to the free-throw line. Most games we’ve been able to do that,” Freeman said.
Edmonds came out in a smothering man-to-man pressure defense, with a defender assigned to specifically blanket Ryley Callaghan and prevent him from getting an inch of space or letting him pull up for a shot.
“We expected them to come man-to-man. We expected them to be physical with Ryley and Deonte [Dixon],” Freeman said.
“It was kind of a junk defense. We had to be able to make basketball plays.”
Peninsula had trouble getting shots to fall early on, as the Tritons’ defensive pressure rattled the Pirates and forced them to take hurried shots and commit sloppy turnovers.
Before the Pirates could blink, Edmonds’ Devin Stoen hit back-to-back 3-pointers and the Tritons kept finding their way to the line.
Soon, Peninsula found itself working with a nine-point deficit, down 15-6 in the opening eight minutes.
Halfway through the first half, Peninsula began to find a rhythm offensively and get stops on the defensive end .
Jal Deng earned an and-1 that was followed by Dixon’s high-flying layup to not only cut the deficit but also help the Pirates take the lead 22-21 with 4:45 left in the first.
“We were able to get some momentum and get some shots going,” Freeman said.
Edmonds retook the lead on a 3-pointer and an and-1 play to take a five-point lead and head into the locker room up 30-25 over the Pirates.
As it has the entire tournament, Peninsula once again proved to be a second-half team.
The Pirates hit their first four shots of the second half: back-to-back makes by Malik Mayuex, a deep 2-pointer from Callaghan and a Deng steal at midcourt and lay-in to reclaim the a 33-30 lead with 15 minutes left in the game.
After an Edmonds turnaround jumper, Peninsula sank three more consecutive shots: a Mayeux jumper and consecutive lay-ins by Dixon and Callaghan, as the Pirates built a seven-point lead with 13 minutes remaining, their largest advantage of the night.
“We had to make sure we caught the ball, face up, be strong and fight their pressure. We were able to do a much better job in the second half,” Freeman said.
With the Pirates holding a 57-55 lead with 4:10 left in the game, Edmonds ramped up the defensive pressure and Peninsula found itself struggling to find open space to sink shots.
Callaghan could only get 11 shots off during the game, as he had a man assigned to him in order to prevent any pull-up shots from the outside.
Edmonds’ deep bench finally took a toll on Peninsula.
The Tritons reclaimed the lead for the final time with a steal and dunk by Samuel Omondi.
The Pirates missed 10 straight shots in the final four minutes and Edmonds pulled away to take away Peninsula’s championship game hopes.
“We got some good shots in the second half and made some baskets and our defense became a little better,” Freeman said.
“We just couldn’t withstand the pressure.”
Callaghan and Dixon, the Pirates’ two leading scorers, finished with eight points each.
Chris Reis and Jal Deng led Peninsula with 11 points apiece. Deng also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jeremiah Hobbs scored eight points, Mayuex had six points and eight rebound and Jonah Cook scored seven points and had eight rebounds off the bench.
Zach Pederson led Edmonds with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
