TACOMA — Port Angeles rallied behind a 27-point fourth quarter to return to the Class 2A state tournament and the West Central District Girls Basketball Championship game after cutting down Eatonvile 48-44 at Foss High School on Thursday.
The Roughriders will face Bainbridge in the district title game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School.
Against Eatonville, Port Angeles heated up from the floor in a manner familiar to anyone who ever played the NBA Jam video game — they were on fire in the fourth.
“We shifted to a full-court man-man press at the beginning of the quarter, which did create some turnovers, but the big shift in our game was in our shooting percentage,” coach Michael Poindexter said. “We shot 63-percent in the quarter, for both 2-point and 3-point shots (5-of-8 for each).”
A Mikkiah Stevens triple brought the Riders within 10 at the 5:05 mark. Morgan Politika’s answer three after a trey by Eatonville all-time leading scorer Bailey Anderson had Port Angeles trailing 41-33 with 4 minutes to go.
The Riders weathered Lindsay Smith fouling out with 2:28 to play, with Lexie Smith stepping up to drain a 3 on an assist by Teanna Clark and then find Stevens for another 3 to pull within 43-42 with 57 seconds left.
Lexie Smith buried the go-ahead trey with 35 seconds to go up for the first time, 45-44 and Port Angeles was able to finish out the game.
The Roughriders were buried early, trailing 22-8 at halftime, and were still behind 33-21 entering the fourth quarter.
Lexie Smith finished with 14 points, five assists, four steals and four rebounds. Lindsay Smith had 13 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.
Clark had six assists and six points for Port Angeles (16-6).
“We struggled to score in the first half due to lack of movement in our zone offense and poor shooting from the field (20-percent for the half). Our defense was good enough to keep us in the game,” Poindexter said.
Port Angeles 48, Eatonville 44
PA 2 6 13 27 — 48
Eaton. 8 14 11 11 — 44
Port Angeles (48) — Le. Smith 14, Li. Smith 13, Clark 6, Stevens 6, Politika 5, Alward 2, Manson 2, Doherty, Moses.
Eatonville (44) — Anderson 21, Hall 9, Schanbeck 7, Bickford 6, Meyer 1.
Neah Bay 66, Muckleshoot 36
SEQUIM — Cerise Moss led the way with 21 points and three other Red Devils each scored 12 as Neah Bay reached the Tri-District Championship with the win and will face Lummi at 5 p.m. today at Muckleshoot.
Angel Halttunen, Winuk Martin, Qwaapeys Greene all had a dozen for the Red Devils (19-1)
Neah Bay 66, Muckleshoot 36
Muckleshoot 6 9 11 10 — 36
Neah 18 17 25 6 — 66
Neah Bay (66) — Ce. Moss 21, Martin 12, Greene 12, A. Halttunen 12, Ca. Moss 5, Yallup 2, McGimpsey 2..
East Jefferson 42, Life Christian 39
SEATAC — The Rivals overcame foul trouble and an injury to leading scorer Penina Vailolo in staying alive in the Class 1A West Central District Tournament.
East Jefferson (13-11) faces Annie Wright today in a winner-to-state, loser-out contest at 2 p.m. at Seattle Christian.
“This win took contributions from everybody out there,” coach Ethan Bates said. “Kay Botkin led the way and came up huge with 10 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. We missed one of our scoring leaders, Penina Vailolo, for much of the game due to foul trouble and an injury sustained in the 4th.
“She only was able to play eight minutes but had seven points and five rebounds in that span. Avah Harris did an amazing job stepping up for her in her absence with 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
“Teri Wiley also came up huge for us with the hustle plays. She had nine rebounds and four steals.
Dylin Shockley had 10 points and hit a big shot at the end of the game to give us a 3-point lead.”
East Jefferson 42, Life Christian 39
EJ 10 9 11 12 — 42
LC 10 10 10 9 — 39
East Jefferson (42) — Harris 11, Shockley 10, Botkin 10, Vailolo 7, Wiley 2, Plotner 2.
Boys Basketball Neah Bay 83, Tulalip Heritage 57
SEQUIM — The Red Devils led from wire-to-wire in beating the Hawks to reach the Tri-District Championshp game.
Neah Bay will face Lummi at 6:45 p.m. today at Muckleshoot.
Neah Bay 83, Tulalip Heritage 57
Tulalip 17 9 20 11 — 57
Neah 16 19 22 25 — 83
Neah Bay (83) — Chambers 23, Swan 20, Woodruff 13, Wimberly 10, A. Greene 5, Cumming 5, Sawyer 2, Burton 1.
