Districts Basketball: Sequim falls to PA as Riders come up clutch

Published 10:00 pm Friday, February 20, 2026

Last February, when the Port Angeles and Sequim boys basketball teams played in the postseason with the season on the line, the Wolves came through big in the clutch in the second half to end the Roughriders’ season and move on to the state 2A tournament.

This year, it was the other way around as Port Angeles’ Hunter Flores and Daniel Benoit hit some huge shots in the fourth quarter while getting stop after stop on defense to hold off Sequim 56-45 in a loser-out District 3 tournament thriller.

The Riders will move on to play Franklin Pierce at 5:15 p.m. today (Saturday, Feb. 20) in Bremerton with the winner moving on the state 2A tournament. The Wolves’ season is over with a record of 10-12.

It was a remarkable turnaround for Port Angeles, which, just two days earlier, fell behind to Clover Park 48-19 and lost 64-43.

Head coach Kevin Ruble said the Riders hadn’t seen the kind of defensive pressure that Clover Park put on Port Angeles. In the long run, it made the Riders a better team.

“That Clover Park game helped us,” he said. “Franklin Pierce plays very similar.”

Ruble said the Riders did so many things right in that second half.

“They took great shots. They got stops. They handled the clock. This team has matured so much,” he said.

“We just came in the next day focused,” Benoit said. “We’re not ready to go home yet.”

“They hit some shots down the stretch,” said Sequim coach Craig Brooks.

Brooks said he could tell before the game started that this was going to be a different Port Angeles team from the Clover Park game.

“During warmups, I could see it in their eyes,” he said.

Brooks told his players after the game that he was proud of them and proud of what they accomplished this year.

“I’m proud of the way they competed and worked hard all season. I’m proud of the seniors [Zeke Schmadeke, Solomon Sheppard, Sebastian Buhrer, Hunter Tennell]. They worked hard all year long.”

The game was close early with the Riders taking a 30-24 lead into the half.

One of the things that killed Port Angeles against Clover Park was a terrible start to the second half. Again, it was opposite Thursday night. Flores hit one of his three 3-pointers and post Brock Hope scored a pair of baskets to quickly give the Riders a 39-27 lead early in the third quarter.

Sequim rallied a couple of times, getting a couple of thunderous dunks from Sheppard and Nolan Bacchus. The Wolves got as close as 42-38 with 1:30 left in the third. But the Riders responded with two more 3-pointers from Flores and four straight points from Brody Pierce to get the lead back to 52-38 with 5:30 left in the game.

Benoit added a 3-pointer right at the 30-second shot clock buzzer to give the Riders a commanding 55-40 lead with 4:45 left in the game. That was devastating as it put Sequim in a deep hole without a lot of time left.

That was Port Angeles’ final field goal of the night, but it didn’t need any more baskets as the defense prevented Sequim from mounting any kind of comeback. The Wolves managed just five points over the final 4:45. The rivals each scored just seven points in the fourth quarter as defense took over the game.

Flores and Pierce led the Riders with 19 points each. Hope had a huge game with eight points and at least five blocked shots.

Sheppard led Sequim with 14 points, while Mason Rapelje and Bacchus each scored 11.

Win or lose today, the Riders (12-10) are assured to finish the season with a winning record in Ruble’s first season as coach.

Franklin Pierce had a record of 15-8 and finished third in the South Puget Sound League with an 11-3 record in league.

Port Angeles 56, Sequim 45

PA 17 13 19 7 — 56

Seq. 15 9 14 7 — 45

Port Angeles (56) — Flores 19, Pierce 19, Hope 8, Benoit 4, Brenkman 4, Ruddell 2.

Sequim (45) — Sheppard 14, Rapelje 11, Bacchus 11, Schmadeke 4, Tennell 3, Reynolds 2.

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Sports editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at sports@peninsuladailynews.com.