March Madness, Northwest style.

With a pair of NWAC tourney wins, the Peninsula Pirates are moving on to the conference’s own Final Four.

Peninsula (21-10) got key defensive efforts and solid all-around play from a full compliment of players in the first two rounds of the NWAC tournament in Everett, knocking off Clakamas 87-74 on March 10 and South Puget Sound 69-59 on March 11.

“We took a couple of years hiatus (from the Final Four). It’s good to be back,” Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman said. “We definitely played our hearts out.”

The Pirates will play Linn-Benton (22-9) in the first of two NWAC semifinals at 2 p.m. on March 17, with Portland (26-5) and North Idaho (23-8) battling each other in the other semifinal.

The top teams vie for a conference crown at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 18.

Against Clackamas, Peninsula used their advantage inside as Marky Adams racked up 16 points and 11 rebounds, plus 15 points and six assists from guard Colby Jackson.

PC held a 39-35 lead at halftime and got a big boost from James Buckley, who scored 14 of his 16 points off the bench in the second frame.

Eli’sha Sheppard chipped in 12 points and five rebounds for PC.

Clackamas (17-13), who shot under 40 percent (28-for-72) for the game and worse from long range (11-of-41, 27 percent) got 24 points from Nygil Carr.

On March 11, Peninsula rocketed out to a 15-point lead against South Puget Sound, the No. 1 seed from the West Region, and held off a feisty Clippers squad to earn a Final Four berth.

Jackson led the Pirates with 17 points and seven assists, and Trent Warren added 16 points and nine rebounds. But the Pirates won the game on the defensive end, holding South Puget Sound to just 7-of-25 (28 percent) shooting from the field in the first half and 31 percent overall.

The Clippers used a full-court press to get back into the game in the second half, using a 25-11 run to cut PC’s lead to 49-48. But that is as close as they’d get, as Peninsula out-scored their foes 20-11 down the stretch.

“We took it on the chin, but we withstood that run,” Freeman said.

Hunter Sipe led South Puget Sound with 22 points.

The Clipper were without West Region MVP A.J. Hodges, who was injured in the tourney opener.

Peninsula finished third in the 2015 NWAC tournament, fourth in the 2012 and won the conference title in 2011.

Pirate postseason honors

Peninsula College’s Colby Jackson has been named to the All-Region men’s basketball first team, while Forks freshman post Marky Adams was tabbed for the region’s All-Defensive Team, the conference announced.

Jackson, a sophomore point guard, leads the Pirates in points (16.8 points per game), assists (5.1) and steals (1.8).

The 6-foot-10 Adams was averaging 10.4 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks for Peninsula heading into last week’s NWAC tourney.

Everett sophomore Gio Jackson was picked as Most Valuable Player and Trojans coach Mike Trautman was selected Coach of the Year.

Peninsula Daily News sports editor Pierre LaBossiere contributed to this report.