PORT ANGELES — Cierra Moss, Zhara Laster and Imani Smith broke a few records and came close to surpassing a few more during their Peninsula College careers.
Moss, a Neah Bay graduate, finishes her time at Peninsula as the women’s basketball program’s career leader in free-throw percentage.
She made 168 of 209 of her foul shots over the past two seasons, a percentage of 80.4. The previous record was 78.5 percent by Ann Pettit, who played for the Pirates from 1998-2000.
Pettit still holds the season mark of 89.7 percent, which she achieved in 1999-2000 season.
Moss also set the record for most 3-point attempts in a career with 308, edging out the 306 attempts by Denise Kerns from 2005-07.
Kerns’ 104 3-pointers made are still the most in school history. Moss made 90.
Moss, who averaged 15.3 points this season, became the second player in two years to get within 10 points of Taylor Larson’s season scoring standard of 470 points, which was set
in 2011-12.
Moss scored 460 points this season. Last year, Madison Pilster scored 461.
Moss set a new record for most field goals attempted in a season, 447, which surpasses the 403 attempts by Pilster in 2014-15.
Moss also passed up Pilster’s record (740) for career field goal attempts, but she doesn’t hold the record because Smith finished with three more attempts. Smith put up 746 field goals in her career, while Moss had 743.
Laster and Smith were closing in on Peninsula’s career steals record, but both fell just shy of Karli Brakes’ 145 steals (2011-13).
Laster, who set a new season marks of 98 steals mark and 3.2 steals per game, was only one swipe short of the career record with 144.
Smith, meanwhile, concludes her career with 139 steals.
Laster, a 5-foot-9 guard, also broke the school’s season rebounding record with 323, surpassing the 303 pulled down by Gabi Fenumiai during her freshman season of 2013-14.
To the next level
Smith and Laster have already decided where they will go to further their college basketball careers.
Laster will play at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She’ll just miss out on playing alongside Port Angeles graduate Jessica Madison, who is in her senior season with the Seawolves (see story on Page B1).
Smith has decided to play at San Francisco State.
“I’m going to go to San Francisco State University and be a Gator,” Smith said earlier this week.
“I’ve been talking to them since last year, and they’re so welcoming, and the coaching staff has opened up their arms to me, and I think it’ll be a fun last two years [of college basketball].”
Alaska-Anchorage and San Francisco State are both NCAA Division II schools.
Smith is from Ontario, Calif., which is about a seven-hour drive from San Francisco
“Close enough so I can drive home,” Smith said.
Despite the long distance from her family and hometown, Smith enjoyed her run in Port Angeles, which included a Northwest Athletic Conference championship in 2015 and a runner-up finish this season.
“I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s just been a great two years,” Smith said.
“[Alison] Crumb is just an amazing coach. She’s always there for us, no matter what, from the start, with getting on us about conditioning, to now, competing for another championship.
“It’s indescribable. I don’t even know how to describe it.
“I absolutely love these girls, the girls that I played with this year. And I love Coach Crumb, and Suz [assistant coach Suzanna Dean] and [assistant] coach [Mike] Knowles, they were so helpful and they’ve changed me and helped me become the player that I am today.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
