Editor’s note: Lower Columbia beat Peninsula College 76-75 with a 3-point shot at the buzzer in overtime in the NWAC championship game.
EVERETT — Midway through the fourth quarter Saturday night, the Peninsula College women’s basketball team looked to be in deep trouble.
The Pirates hadn’t shot well all night, they weren’t hitting free throws and after starting the fourth quarter shooting 0-for-8 from the floor, they had fallen behind an offensively powerful Clackamas team 54-46 with 5:30 left in the NWAC semifinals.
Then Millie Long drove into the lane and hit a basket and was fouled for a three-point play.
And that one play seemed to change the tone of the entire game. It began a remarkable 20-4 run over the next five minutes by the Pirates. Peninsula allowed a deep 3-pointer by Clackamas in the final seconds, but it didn’t matter as the Pirates beat a shellshocked Cougars team 67-61 to advance to the NWAC finals against Lower Columbia, which upset previously unbeaten Lane 77-70 in the other semifinal earlier in the evening.
“It was a super fun game to be a part of,” said coach Alison Crumb.
Crumb said she wasn’t that concerned when the women got down eight points midway through the fourth quarter.
“I wasn’t that worried. We were playing such good defense,” she said. “I took a timeout and told them ‘our shots are not falling tonight. We have to get something out of our defense.’ That five-minute mark was a real gutcheck.”
Sunday’s championship game was after press deadline. For results of the game, go to www.peninsuladailynews.com or look in Tuesday’s print edition.
Long, who hadn’t really regained her scoring touch after spraining her ankle a couple of weeks ago, completely took over in the fourth quarter. She scored 14 points in the fourth, going 3-for-4 from the field and 8-for-9 from the free-throw line in the final five minutes. Long finished with 23 points, five assists and five steals, while shooting 9-for-11 from the charity stripe.
Hope Glasser was also big in the fourth. She didn’t have a great shooting game, but she had a steal and hit two crucial baskets in the fourth quarter, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds.
“I really think they [Clackamas] thought we were going to fold,” Crumb said. She said Glasser and Long hadn’t shot well until that fourth-quarter surge, but that during a timeout, Crumb told them, “We’re going to ride this out. Win or lose, I want you two in the game.”
Itaua Tuisaula had 10 points and 18 rebounds, 10 of them offensive rebounds, and two blocks. Madison Cooke had nine points, five rebounds and three steals.
Freakish stats
It was another game of almost freakish statistics for the Peninsula women.
The Pirates only shot 29 percent from the floor and just 9 percent from 3-point range. They shot just 3-for-9 from the free-throw line entering the fourth quarter, but went 12-for-15 in the fourth, thanks in large part to Long.
Here’s why they won. The Pirates took 86 shots to Clackamas’ 51. They had 29 offensive rebounds to Clackamas’ 11. The Pirates had 20 steals to five for the Cougars. And most startling of all, the Pirates forced 33 Clackamas turnovers while only turning the ball over 11 times themselves. Clackamas’ Brooke Bullock, the leading scorer in the NWAC, managed to score 16 points, but the Pirates forced her to make 12 turnovers.
Peninsula 67, Clackamas 61
Clack. 14 14 18 15 — 61
PC 13 14 18 22 — 67
Clackamas (61) — Bullock 16, Lyons 11, Boese 10, Kalia 9, Fernstrom 8, Martineau 6, Brazile 1.
Peninsula (67) — Long 23, Tuisaula 10, Cooke 9, Glasser 8, Kaganak 7, Smith 6, Kamae 2, Brown 2.
