EVERETT, WA – The saying is “defense wins championships” and the Peninsula Pirates aimed to prove that their second-best defense could win against the second-best scoring offense of the Umpqua Lady Riverhawks in the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament Thursday.
The Pirates managed to keep Umpqua in-check early and were able to hold off a late charge from the Riverhawks to win 70-67. The victory keeps Peninsula’s hopes of a repeat conference title alive.
Umpqua struggled with its offense in the first half, shooting only 34.3% from the floor against Peninsula. That’s well below their season average of 50%. Most notably, Umpqua sophomore Sawyer Kluge struggled to find her touch in the first half going 1-for-7 from the floor.
Meanwhile, Peninusla shot above their average and built a 39-32 lead going to the halftime break.
The Pirates continued to pressure Umpqua in the second half and stretched the lead to as much as 13 points, but the Riverhawks closed the gap to just eight points going to the fourth quarter. A 7-0 run by UCC to start the final period made it a 60-59 lead for Peninsula and the race to the finish was on.
Freshman Syd Clark gave Umpqua its first lead since the first quarter with two made free throws near the six minute mark. Anna Mumm stretched the lead to four with a 3-pointer near the five minute mark and the Riverhawks took a 66-62 advanced to the home stretch.
Turnovers and poor shooting reared their head again for Umpqua over the final five minutes and they were held to just one point. The Riverhawks committed 27 turnovers in the game, which led to 25 points for the Pirates.
Peninsula took the lead for good on a free throw by Daijhan Cooks with 3:26 remaining. The Pirates stretched the score to 69-66 and it stalled there for a couple of minutes. Umpqua had multiple chances to tie the game, but a pair of 3-point attempts didn’t fall and the Riverhawks went 1-for-4 from the free throw line in the final 60-seconds.
Peninsula had chances to put the game away from the line, but didn’t capitalize and the Riverhawks had one final chance to tie the game with 7.8 seconds left. On the ensuing inbound pass, Peninsula’s Imani Smith poked the ball away from Syd Clark and the steal sealed the win.
Smith finished with a season-high 25 points to lead Peninsula to the victory. She added nine rebounds and four steals.
Anna Mumm scored a game-high 26 points to lead Umpuqa. She added 13 rebounds and one blocked shot. Sawyer Kluge finished with 14 points, scoring 12 in the second half.
The Riverhawks fall into the consolation bracket and will face Spokane in an elimination game. Spokane lost 64-61 to Lower Columbia. The consolation game will take place at 10 a.m. Friday. Coverage on 1490 The Score and 541radio.com will begin at 9:45 a.m.
– Joey Keeran | joey@bciradio.com | @joeykeeran
