Bellevue sweeps PC on hardcourt; Pirates cap season on June 2

Bellevue’s Bulldogs came to play, earning a sweep of both men’s and women’s basketball match-ups on May 31 in Bellevue to stay in first place atop both division standings.

On the men’s side, first place Bellevue got 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from O’Landa Baker — including a dunk with 15 seconds left — to pull away with a 68-62 victory.

Isaiah Sampson was the only Pirate in double figures, scoring 12 points and posting a team-high 10 rebounds for fourth place Peninsula (9-7).

The Peninsula women saw a small third quarter lead dissipate in a 75-71 loss to the Bulldogs, despite Sequim High grad Hope Glasser’s 18 points and eight rebounds.

Bulldog Mo Bungay paced all scorers with 25 points.

Tasiah Little had 16 points of the bench and Tayvia Cabatbat had 14 for Peninsula (8-7), who like the PC men are in fourth place.

With a number of game cancellations, Peninsula wraps up the abridged 2021 season with a home doubleheader on Wednesday, June 2. The Pirate women take on Whatcom (8-4) at 4 p.m. while the PC men get a rematch with Bellevue (9-3) on at 6 p.m. Fans are welcome.

Glasser leads Pirates to win

The Peninsula College women snapped a two-game losing streak, pulling away in the final minutes to fend off an Olympic College team that wouldn’t go away.

The Pirates won 71-62 to improve to 8-6.

Olympic came in with an 0-12 record and, after the Pirates got off to a 12-2 start to open the game, it appeared they would have an easy win.

Peninsula held a double-digit lead for much of the game and was up 43-27 at the half. But the Rangers fought back, outscoring the Pirates 22-14 in the third quarter and cutting the lead to 60-56 with 6 minutes left in the game.

“We didn’t have a very good second half. We lost a lot of focus and energy. I wasn’t super impressed,” said coach Alison Crumb. “I’m happy to have a team that can gut out a win when they don’t play their best. We’ll always take a win.”

The Pirates, behind a number of clutch plays from Glasser, went on a 10-4 run over the next 5:20 to put Olympic away. Glasser had two buckets and two free throws during that stretch, along with a rebound and a steal.

Glasser ended up leading the Pirates in scoring with 16 points to go along with her eight rebounds, five assists and five steals. She also shot 5-for-7 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. But it was a balanced effort with four players in double figures.

Crumb said part of the reason Olympic was able to claw its way back in the game is Glasser had to leave because she picked up her fourth foul.

“She’s an integral part of what we’re doing this year and our team next year,” Crumb said. “Her motor is so high and she works so hard.”

Cabatbat had 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Keeli-Jade Smith had three 3-pointers, 11 points and seven rebounds and Ariyanna Camacho-Villafuerte had 11 points.

The Pirates didn’t shoot great at 36.6 percent, but they took 18 more shots than the Rangers. Peninsula, normally not a big 3-point shooting team, took 34 shots from beyond the arc, making nine.

“We were just lazy, to be perfectly honest. There’s not ever a game where we should take 34 3-pointers. They’ll learn from it,” Crumb said.

Port Townsend’s Jasmani Apker-Montoya had eight points and four rebounds for Olympic.