PORT ANGELES — When the Peninsula Pirates were called to receive their second-place trophy, there was a few seconds of hesitation before a few players stepped up to accept the trophy.
Clearly, the Pirates weren’t stoked about how the Battle in the Olympics turned out.
Fourth-ranked Peninsula, which was hosting the Northwest Athletic Conference North Region crossover, ended the three-day tournament with an 84-53 loss to top-ranked Lane on Saturday.
The Pirates made only 23 percent of the field goals, including only 4 of 28 (14 percent) in the second half.
“We just didn’t hit shots,” Peninsula coach Alison Crumb said. “You can’t play a team like this and score the ball 53 times. This team averages 90.
“We just can’t shoot the ball 23 percent and expect to win against a team like that.”
The Pirates never really found their shooting stroke during the tournament that also served as their first home games of the season.
In their 64-45 win over South Puget Sound on Thursday, the Pirates’ shooting percentage was 41 percent, and that was boosted by 12 of 21 shooting in the second half.
In Friday’s 60-47 win over Big Bend, Peninsula made 35 percent of its field goals.
“When you get in a funk in a game and then you’ve got to play two more games after that, and you still don’t feel confident with your shot, you have no practices or no time to sort of rejuvenate and get ready to go for the next game,” Crumb said.
“And that hurt us a little bit, because we haven’t been shooting well all tournament.”
Saturday’s game started off well for the Pirates.
In the second matchup of the season between last year’s NWAC finalists, defending champion Peninsula jumped out to a 24-16 lead after one quarter.
The only thing keeping Lane in the game at that point was Shelby Snook, who scored 12 of the team’s 16 points.
Snook added nine more points during the Titans’ second-quarter-opening 13-0 run that turned its deficit into a 29-24 lead.
Daijhan Cooks broke the streak by hitting a free throw for Peninsula’s first points of the quarter with 5:19 remaining.
Zhara Laster then kept the Pirates close by scoring their final six points of the quarter to cut the Titan’s lead to 35-33 at the break.
Laster opened the second half with a 3-pointer and scored another bucket to give Peninsula a 38-36 lead less than two minutes into the quarter, but Lane finished the quarter with a 26-6 run and led 62-44 heading into the fourth.
The Titans kept adding to their lead in the final period, and scored 15 of the finals 17 points of the game
“The score’s deceiving, and honestly, that third quarter just kind of killed us,” Crumb said.
“We came out kind of hot. We scored 24 points in the first quarter, and we needed to stay on pace for that, because this is a great offensive team, and we scored 20 in the entire second half. We scored more in one quarter that we did in the entire second half.
“We lost our legs, we lost our confidence, we were forcing stuff.
“You know, what are you going to do? You just take your punches and move on.”
The Pirates’ next game is in nearly three weeks, Jan. 9, when they open NWAC North play against Edmonds on the road.
Crumb said many of the players are returning to their hometowns this week for Christmas.
When they return to Port Angeles, they’ll begin working to strengthen the weaknesses that have been discovered and exploited by opponents over the past two weekends, during which the Peninsula (9-4) went 3-3.
“I thought we played better than the weekend before, as far as energy level,” Crumb said.
“And, you know, I think we’re ready for a break. We just want to move on from this and start the next chapter of our season.
“I’m ready to move on from this. I don’t like losing, but that’s a hard team to beat, so I’m not incredibly disappointed with how we played.
“I just want to move on, and I can’t wait to relax and spend some time with family and friends and come back rejuvenated and ready to refocus and get better, and play in our league.”
Snook was named the MVP of the tournament after scoring 32 points and dishing out seven assists in Saturday’s victory.
The Pirates, though, did hold Jordan Kimbrough, the MVP of last week’s tournament at Pierce, to 10 points.
“I think the defensive effort was great,” Crumb said.
“Those last five minutes is not, you know, they were not on pace to score 84. So defensively, if you would have told me, hey, you’re holding Lane to 75 points, I’d be like, we got a good chance of winning that game — but not if we’re going to score 53.”
“Defensively, we played great. Obviously, I don’t want anyone to go off for 32 points on us, but she’s a great player. They have great players, that’s why you have to score.”
Crumb was particularly happy with Peninsula’s three freshmen post players. Jenise McKnight, Daijhan Cooks and Tai Thomas held Kimbrough in check while also contributing 14 points Saturday. McKnight had eight of those points and made some nifty offensive moves in the post.
“I think our posts did a great job,” Crumb said. “I learned a lot about them this whole weekend, really. They’ve stepped up defensively, and that’s huge for us.
“And if we can get more consistency getting them involved offensively, you know, we’ll be fine.”
Peninsula’s Cierra Moss was named to the all-tournament team after finishing with 17 points Saturday, 11 of those coming at the free-throw line.
Moss averaged 14.3 points in the tournament and was Peninsula’s leading scorer, or tied for the lead, in all three games.
Joining her on the all-tournament team were Lane’s Gabby Heehn, who scored 16 Saturday, Big Bend’s Max Shelley, Centralia’s Susan Kenney and Spokane’s Khadija Neumeyer.
South Puget Sound’s Krista Johnson, a graduate of Port Angeles High School, was named the most inspirational person of the tournament.
Centralia placed third at the tournament, while Spokane took fourth, Big Bend was fifth and South Puget Sound was sixth.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
