KENNEWICK — A repeat championship wasn’t in the cards for the Peninsula College men’s basketball team.
The Pirates met a potent team in the Chemeketa Storm of Salem, Ore., in the semifinals, falling 98-91 in the semifinals Monday night.
Then Peninsula ran out of gas against Big Bend in the third-place game Tuesday afternoon, losing 84-73.
Big Bend led 47-38 at the break and never looked back.
Dudley Ewell and J.T. Terrell combined for 32 points for the Pirates, each had 16, while Sam Waller added 12 and Corey Clement netted 10.
Blake Skidmore had a monster game for Big Bend, scoring 30 points and hauling down 10 rebounds.
Big Bend dominated on the boards, out-rebounding the Pirates 44-25.
Peninsula won the NWAACC championship for the first time last year.
Semifinals
Chemeketa hit big shot after big shot , coming back to push defending champion Peninsula College over the edge on Monday night, beating the Pirates 98-91 to advance to the NWAACC finals.
The game had all the makings of a blowout when Peninsula’s Tyler Funk hit a 3-pointer after less than three minutes of play to put the Pirates up 13-2.
Chemeketa answered with a 10-0 run to climb within one point on a made 3 by Gavin Kauffman with 14 minutes left in the half, tying the game two minutes later at 15 apiece.
The Storm took their first lead when Jacob Begin hit from downtown, and minutes later found themselves up by six when Kauffman knocked down another trey.
Chemeketa pushed its lead to eight before the half was over, and led 45-42 at the break.
Peninsula took the advantage early in the second half, but Chemeketa reclaimed the lead when Johnny Howard hit from distance to put the Storm up 55-54.
From there, the rout was on, as Chemeketa went on a 19-0 run to take a 74-54 lead with 9:32 left in the contest.
Down 94-77 with under a minute and a half remaining, Peninsula caught fire from 3-point range, scoring 11 points in 58 seconds to make it 94-88 with 31 seconds left.
Peninsula, though, would not complete the comeback, and Chemeketa escaped with the victory.
Funk led Peninsula with 25 points, six rebounds, eight assists and six steals.
Sam Waller swished in 21 points for the Pirates while Dudley Ewell sank 17 and J.T. Terrell added 14, way off his normal 27-point average.
The second part of Peninsula’s Big Two, post DeShaun Freeman, also was held in check for eight points on 36 percent shooting from the field.
Freeman did bring down a team-high nine rebounds.
Kauffman had 25 points for Chemeketa while Trevor Phillips had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Chemeketa played Tacoma on Tuesday night for the NWAACC title.
