PORT ANGELES — It’s no surprise that the 14-0 Peninsula College women’s basketball team dominated the all-North honors Monday.
Pirates’ head coach Alison Crumb was named the North coach of the year, while point guard Shania Moananu was named the North Region MVP and freshman of the year.
Meanwhile, Ciera Agasiva was named to the first team, Jenilee Donovan was named to the second team and Alexa Mackey was named to the all-defensive team.
For the Peninsula College men, Javon Ervin and Ese Onakpoma were both named to the North first team while Onakpoma was also named the defensive MVP for the North.
Moananu hasn’t put up huge stats this year — 9.9 points, 3.0 assists and 4.2 rebounds a game — but Crumb said she has effectively run the Pirates’ offense. Moananu is also an excellent distributor who specializes in clever no-look passes.
“She’s more of a true point guard than we’ve had in a long time. Her role is to set the pace for the team,” Crumb said. “That shows up with the others’ numbers.”
Peninsula has a unique offense this year with no big scorers but six players — Moananu, Agasiva, Allie Greene, Mackey, Donovan and Jelissa Julmist — averaging between 7.9 and 10.7 points a game. Agasiva leads the team at 10.7.
Donovan’s highlight this year was setting a Peninsula College record for most 3-pointers in a game — eight. Mackey averages 7.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals a game to go with her 8.3 points a game.
As far as the coaching award, Crumb said it shows that Peninsula is the best team in the North. The Pirates have won numerous North titles, but never went 14-0 before this season. In fact, Peninsula has a 17-game winning streak and is 21-2 on the season.
Crumb said what has made this team special is that it simply keeps finding a way to win with every other team in the North Region throwing their best at the Pirates.
“We’ve been a good team all year. We’ve had big wins, we’ve had ugly wins, we’ve have wins with people out sick or hurt,” she said.
Men’s all-stars
Onakpoma and Ervin have nearly identical scoring statistics — Onakpoma averages 19.8 points and 2.9 assists a game while Ervin averages 19.4 points and 3.1 assists a game. Onakpoma is a little bigger and averages 6.2 rebounds a game. He has 53 steals for 1.8 steals a game and 34 blocks for 1.2 a game.
Sendoff
There will be an NWAC tournament send-off celebration for both the men and the women at 11:30 a.m. today at the Pirates Union Building. The men, a No. 4 seed, play No. 1 seed Portland at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Columbia Basin College in Pasco. If they win, they play again in the second round at 2 p.m. Thursday.
The women, a No. 1 seed, play No. 4 seed Centralia at noon Friday. If they win, they play again at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The games can all be streamed on the NWAC Network at nwacnetwork.com. Cost is $14 for an individual game in the first two rounds, $16 for an individual final four game or $35 for all the men’s games or all the women’s games.
Peninsula’s Ese Onakpoma, left, shoulders into Everett’s Derek Smith in a Feb. 24 game in Port Angeles. Onakpoma, with 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks a game, was named the North Region defensive player of the year. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
