PORT ANGELES — Madison Pilster and Gabi Fenumiai were key members of last year’s Peninsula College women’s basketball team that was swept by the Whatcom.
Two Orcas who played big roles in the 2013-14 sweep of the Pirates, Kortney Grattic and Kayla Tiemersma, are Whatcom’s leading scorers this year.
Eighth-ranked Peninsula turned the tables by sweeping the Orcas into the 2014-15 dustpan with a 79-58 win in Northwest Athletic Conference North Division action Wednesday.
Leading the way for the Pirates were Pilster with a career-high 30 points and Fenumiai with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Peninsula (8-1, 14-5) remains in second place in the North, a game behind Bellevue (9-0, 18-6).
“Grattic and [Tiemersma], me and Gabi, we’ve been playing against them for two years now and we kind of have a rivalry against each other,” Pilster said.
“And Grattic, she’s been like the best scorer in the NWAC two years in a row, so big game for us, and we held her down to I think 14 [points], so that felt good to stop her.”
Grattic’s 14 points were her second-lowest output of the season. She came into Wednesday’s game leading the conference with an average of 24.4 points per game.
Only six of those points were scored in the decisive first half in which the Pirates built a 43-23 lead — all six points came in the last six minutes of the half, and four came in the final 1 minute, 20 seconds.
Defending Grattic was Pilster, who herself put up 14 points in the opening half.
“They have a great post in [Tiemersma] and the best scorer in the league in Kortney Grattic, and they’re sort of the same positions as Maddy and Gabi, and so for them, they’ve been playing against them for two years, and they feel like they’ve always had something to prove against those two players because of their success,” Pirates coach Alison Crumb said.
“For Maddy, to go out and hold Kortney Grattic to 14 points in the same amount of minutes, and Maddy has 30 . . . to me, I think she’s the best player in this league.”
“I believe that. I see how hard she works, she’s competitive, she steps up for big games, she’s not afraid of them and she’s our best defender.
“I’m so frickin’ proud of her. She deserved this game. She deserved it hands-down more than anybody I’ve ever coached.”
Pilster, who ranks 10th in the NWAC with 16.6 points per game, scored from all over, including from long range, where she made 6 of 10 attempts from 3-point range.
“You could just tell in her face, she wanted the ball and she wanted to shoot it and she knew it was going in,” Crumb said.
“And the few that she missed, she was back at half-court because she thought that they were going in.”
Pilster also had three steals, which tied for the game-high with teammate Imani Smith and Whatcom starting guard and former Port Angeles High School standout Maddy Hinrichs.
In her return to Port Angeles, Hinrichs finished with eight points, three rebounds, three assists and the three steals.
She scored the Orcas’ first four points, first rebounding her own miss for a bucket and then driving for another, as Whatcom traded basket for basket with the Pirates for nearly four minutes.
With the score tied at 8-8 with 16:10 remaining in the first half, Peninsula went on a 7-0 run, with Pilster scoring five of those points, to make it 15-8.
The Orcas scored the next four points, but they couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced Pirates, who followed with a 10-0 run to take a 25-12 lead.
A short 5-0 run later in the half extended Peninsula’s lead to 32-14. That lead grew to 43-23 by halftime.
“That first half, we came out ready to prove something,” Crumb said.
The second half wasn’t quite so dominant for the Pirates.
The offense wasn’t as effective and Pilster had minor foul trouble and had to be taken off Grattic for a bit.
“We didn’t want to have to sit her because she had three [fouls],” Crumb said.
“Because she was just . . . she just had that look like, ‘Coach, you can’t sit me down. You just can’t.’
“So we moved her off a little bit.”
Although Peninsula’s wasn’t as dominant as in the first half, its lead never dipped below 19 points after halftime — and the one time it got that low, Pilster hit a 3-pointer to push it back to 22 points.
Pilster and Fenumiai had plenty of help. Nine Pirates played. Nine scored and nine pulled down at least one rebound.
Smith finished with 10 points and five assists, Cierra Moss scored nine points, and Miranda Schmillen and Whitney Nemelka each scored two points and had seven rebounds.
Peninsula also had Zhara Laster for the first time since Jan. 24 when she sprained her knee against Bellevue.
Laster didn’t start but played 20 minutes and scored six points with six rebounds and five assists.
Crumb said Laster will be eased back into action.
Port Townsend graduate Gabrielle Hossack had a rebound in 12 minutes for Whatcom.
The Pirates are home again Saturday when they host Everett (5-4, 11-12) at 5 p.m.
Peninsula defeated the Trojans 69-62 last month.
Peninsula 79, Whatcom 58
Whatcom 23 35— 58
Peninsula 43 36— 79
Individual scoring
Whatcom (58)
Camacho 1, Hinrichs 8, Maxwell 5, Gilbert 10, Grattic 14, Johnson 3, Tietje 2, Brown 5, Tiemersma 10, Hossack.
Peninsula (79)
Laster 6, Ci. Moss 9, Pilster 30, Fenumiai 13, Hutchins 3, Nemelka 2, Ch. Moss 4, Schmillen 2, Smith 10.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
