PORT ANGELES — The net was coming down, regardless.
But first, the Peninsula women’s basketball team had to face Shoreline.
The Pirates had already clinched at least a share of the Northwest Athletic Conference North Region championship. And by virtue of tiebreaker, Peninsula was guaranteed the region’s top seed at the NWAC tournament later this week.
The struggle Saturday wasn’t winning — which the Pirates did handily, 87-20, to win the North outright — it was being merciful to the winless Dolphins, who suited up only five players, while still playing well and having fun.
The struggle was real for Peninsula coach Alison Crumb.
“Every day, no matter who we’re going against, coach tells us it’s a championship game,” Peninsula sophomore guard Miranda Schmillen said.
“Even today, she was telling us: don’t feel bad, this is our night, and we’ve won, we’ve earned this championship and we’ve worked so hard for each other, and cheer when we’ve done something good and coach people up when we need to be coached up.
“It’s tough to . . . remain mature and keep playing, not playing sloppy or play dumb.
“Coach just said to play our game and just keep attacking, and we’re not going to change our game because of a different team, we’re going to play our brand of basketball, which is to win championships, no matter who we’re playing.”
Shoreline scored the first bucket of the game and led 4-2 before Peninsula tied the score at 4-4 with 17:10 left in the first half.
That bucket, a layup by Whitney Nemelka, was the beginning of a 13-0 run, after which the Pirates led 15-4.
Then came four straight points by the Dolphins, and six straight by Peninsula.
Shoreline’s Justice Perry cut the lead to 21-10 with under nine minutes to play, but that would be the last bucket the Dolphins would get until four minutes into the second half, as the Pirates reeled off 33 unanswered points.
Peninsula led 38-10 at halftime and 54-10 when its big run ended with 15:50 left in the game.
Crumb was able to rest ailing players — starting guard Imani Smith didn’t play, and starter Zhara Laster and key reserve Cherish Moss put in 10 minutes combined — while giving proper send-offs to Peninsula’s five sophomores and abundant playing time to those players deeper on the bench.
For instance, sophomore Jonelle Staveland played a career-high 25 minutes, during which she scored 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and had five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
“I mean, we didn’t get better after this game, but it’s still just about our sophomores and our fans and making sure that we enjoy what we’re doing and we’ve enjoyed this year. We just tried to keep focused on that,” Crumb said.
“I mean, obviously, this is a difficult game to play, but we just wanted to celebrate ourselves. And these girls love each other so much, it was more about being able to be together one last time out on this floor.”
The hardest part of the game might have been keeping Smith off the court after sophomore Gabi Fenumiai hit a 3-pointer, the first and only 3 she has attempted in her college career.
The entire gym went nuts, from the fans, which included surprise visitors for Fenumiai from her native Alaska, to the Peninsula bench.
Fenumiai’s trey the first thing Crumb wanted to talk about after the game.
“She [asked] me, ‘Coach, can I please shoot a 3?” Crumb said. “And I was like, I don’t know, I don’t want this to be like a circus or whatever.
“I just felt like we needed to have something to have our kids be excited about because we were down-playing ourselves a little bit. So, I was like, all right.
“She caught it, and shot it, contested, and swished it. She’s 100 percent from the 3-point line.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, perfect.’”
Fenumiai finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds. After the game she was honored for breaking the school’s all-time rebounding record.
Fenumiai’s 515 career rebounds shatters the previous mark of 382, which was held by Danielle Larson, who was Crumb’s teammate on the last Peninsula women’s team to win a region title, and who, like Fenumiai, played at Juneau-Douglas High School.
Fenumiai was one of five Pirates to score in double figures.
Schmillen had 18, Nemelka had 13, Madison Pilster finished with 12 and Staveland scored 11.
Those double-digit scorers are Peninsula’s five sophomores who were honored after Saturday’s game.
“This is a group of sophomores that have integrity like no other that I’ve seen,” Crumb said.
“They do the right things off the floor, they represent themselves well, they’re good leaders, they’re just great to the youth in this community, and they’re so sad that they’re going to be gone. And that’s important to me.
“I just can’t wait to see what they’re doing in 10 years. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things that they’re going to accomplish, because this is just a small piece of what those girls can accomplish.
“I’m going to miss all of them a lot.”
Peninsula assisted on 26 of its 38 field goals.
Nemelka had nine of those dimes.
“When I play, I mostly like to just get other people the ball and have them score,” Nemelka said.
“I’m not a big scorer myself. I’d rather just get the assists to the other people and let them get the glory of it all.”
After beating the Dolphins, and after watching the men’s game, the Pirates celebrated their region championship by cutting down the net hanging from one of the gym’s basketball hoops.
Peninsula (13-1, 19-5) will open the NWAC tournament this Saturday at 8 p.m. against Portland (6-6, 13-13), the South Region’s fourth-place team, at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
The Pirates are making their fourth consecutive tournament appearance. Last year’s team, which featured most of this year’s sophomores, qualified for the tournament late in the season and ended up going two-and-out.
This year, they enter the tournament on a nine-game winning streak — the best current streak in the conference — and are gunning for the championship.
“We’re confident. We feel like we can go out there and win the whole thing,” Crumb said.
“We don’t see any reason not to think that way. You know, a lot can happen, but that’s what we believe so that how we’re going to continue to go forward.
“Not to say that anything less would be a disappointment, but I think the way that we feel that we can play, we don’t think we should strive for anything less.”
Peninsula 87, Shoreline 20
Shoreline 10 10— 20
Peninsula 38 49— 87
Individual scoring
Shoreline (20)
Abu 2, Lloyd 7, Truong 3, Perry 8, Roberts.
Peninsula (87)
Laster 2, Santiago 1, Ci. Moss 3, Pilster 12, Staveland 11, Fenumiai 25, Nemelka 13, Schmillen 18, Gonzales 2, Hutchins, Ch. Moss, Criddle.
________
Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
