PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s basketball team survived an upset bid by winning 66-65 on Wednesday night.
A David and Goliath story was unfolding in the Peninsula College gym as the NWAACC North Division’s last-place Everett Trojans were leading the third-ranked and second-place Pirates 65-59 with 1:21 to play.
Everett’s veteran head coach Larry Walker had appropriately prepared his men for the battle and the game was their’s to win.
Peninsula head coach Lance Von Vogt, however, was not ready to surrender — and his men rose to the occasion.
Sophomore guard Tyler Funk drained a 3-pointer from right in front of his bench to close the gap to 65-62 with 57 seconds to go, giving Pirate fans a glimmer of hope.
With a four-guard, full-court pressure line-up in the game, Sam Waller stole the inbounds pass and scored to close it to 65-64 with 54 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock.
The Pirates’ defense then got its biggest stop of the game, getting the ball back with 18 seconds left, setting up a final do-or-die possession.
With the clock ticking down, Waller, a sophomore guard out of Chino, Calif., put his head down and drove down the left side of the lane, putting up a floater over a sea of red shirts.
The ball bounced several times on the rim and then rolled into the net with 1.2 seconds left as Pirate fans went wild.
It was not Peninsula’s best game, but it was a pretty good finish, Von Vogt said.
The Pirates shot just 35 percent from the floor and 27 percent from 3-point range, but they got some good minutes defensively out of Daniel Sims, Jordan Rawls, Antonio Stevenson and Tim Friday off the bench to keep them in the game.
Corey Clement always plays hard and the undersized post led Peninsula with 15 points and six rebounds, Von Vogt said.
Waller finished with 11 and Funk added nine points, four assists and three steals.
Peninsula’s DeShaun Freeman was held to seven points, but contributed 13 rebounds.
The Pirates (10-3, 20-4) picked up a game on Bellevue as the Bulldogs lost to Whatcom on Wednesday night.
Peninsula will play Shoreline (9-4, 15-9) on the Dolphins’ court on Monday.
Women’s Basketball
Peninsula 65, Evertt 62
PORT ANGELES — The Pirates beat up on the Trojans 85-30 back on Jan. 16 in Everett, so they were prepared for a lay-up drill Wednesday night at home when the two teams met again.
Everett had different plans.
Peninsula controlled the tempo through the early going, but could not shake Everett, as coach Alison Crumb’s squad took a 30-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Pirates then stepped it up in the second half, building their lead to 54-42, but the Trojans still wouldn’t go away.
Everett rallied to close the gap to 63-60 with 31 seconds to play.
Capitalizing on missed free throws at the Pirate end of the floor, the Trojans then closed it to 63-62 with 15 seconds left.
Fairbanks, Alaska freshman Jasmine Yarde then collected the inbounds pass and was immediately fouled.
She hit both free throws to make it 65-62 with 14 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock.
Her Pirate teammates then rallied at the defensive end, thwarting Everett’s attempt to get off a 3-point shot and the Trojans eventually lost the ball out of bounds, securing the win for Peninsula.
Yarde led all scorers with 19 points and seven rebounds, Jesse Ellis had 16 points and eight assists, Taylor Larson also scored 16 and Abby Jones chipped in eight.
With the win, the Pirates (9-4, 15-8) moved into a third-place tie with Whatcom.
The Pirate women are at Shoreline on Monday.
