PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College women’s basketball coach Alison Crumb’s message was received by freshman post players Tai Thomas, Jenise McKnight and Daijhan Cooks.
“She was just telling us to play hard, play with a chip on our shoulders, like we have something to prove,” McKnight said.
In the Pirates’ 77-55 victory over Everett on Saturday, McKnight, Cooks and Thomas combined for 37 points on 10 of 16 shooting from the field and 10 of 14 shooting from the free-throw line.
“Especially our posts off the bench came in and played with a lot more control and confidence, let the game come to them, let the rhythm come to them,” Crumb said.
“Sometimes it’s hard coming in off the bench because you want to make something happen to prove you should be out there, and sometimes it’s a little forced, and I thought that they came in and played within the rhythm of the game really well.”
Thomas started and scored eight points, while McKnight scored 12 and Cooks finished with 10.
“That’s huge for us. That’s huge to be able to have that kind of rotation down low, so I was really proud of how they played. And they’re just getting better and better,” Crumb said.
“We just got good minutes from all three of those posts.”
Peninsula started Saturday’s game not needing much from their post players. Within the first five minutes, Cierra Moss had made two 3-pointers and Imani Smith made another as the Pirates built a quick 15-2 lead.
After that, Peninsula started working the ball inside, and more shots were going to the post players.
Moss still led the Pirates with 17 points, including a 3-pointer that beat the second-quarter buzzer, but Smith only attempted eight shots, her second smallest amount this season, for nine points, and Zhara Laster dished out nine assists to go with her 11 rebounds and six points.
The three Peninsula posts had just as much impact on the defensive end, despite often guarding smaller players.
“Especially Tai, we just talked about it. Tai was helping out so much, and we said that she should probably guard guards more often,” Smith said.
“They knew that [Everett] didn’t have the size that we do, and there were a few girls that are big on their team, but outside of that, they knew that they had to guard guards.
“And we knew that they could do it, we had faith in our post players, and they just dominated that second half on defense.
“And to see them out there working their butts off on defense and putting in their all on defense, it was a good feeling.”
Moss also had seven rebounds for Peninsula. She was facing former Neah Bay High School teammate Kaela Tyler, who is a freshman for Everett. Tyler hit a pair of 3-pointers to finish with six points.
Breezy Shore led the Trojans with 21 points, while Lauren Allison, who is no stranger to Peninsula College having played for its soccer rival Everett during the fall, finished with nine points.
The fifth-ranked Pirates (3-0, 12-4) are now tied atop the Northwest Athletic Conference standings with Skagit Valley (3-0, 13-6), which defeated fourth-ranked Bellevue 70-63 on Saturday.
With Saturday’s loss, Everett (2-1, 9-8) falls into a second-place tie with Bellevue (2-1, 12-4).
Those four teams will likely be the North’s four teams to make the postseason and will jostling for postseason position the remainder of the season, barring a season-turnaround by Olympic, Shoreline, Whatcom or Edmonds.
Peninsula next plays at Olympic (0-3, 5-10) on Wednesday.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
