By Eric Trent
Peninsula squandered a 35-point lead in the first-half, regained its composure after the lead trickled to 3, and held off a frenzied comeback to take a 99-90 win over Everett, Saturday, Jan. 16.
Sophomore forward Dimitri Amos hauled in 21 rebounds, tying Peninsula College’s 16-year old, single-game rebound record.
Three minutes in, Chris Reis nailed a 3-pointer, Deonte Dixon drained a midrange jumper then Ryley Callaghan went off for 8-straight points, propeling Peninsula to an 18-6 lead.
Dixon hit a trifecta with 2 minutes left before the half to give Peninsula a 35-point lead, it’s largest of the night.
Everett found its spark coming out of the locker room, connecting on a flurry of shots and going on a 19-9 run to bring the score to 59-47.
“Everett is a very good basketball team that can score. They have been averaging 93 points per game, so it was no surprise that they were going to come out and be very aggressive at attacking the basket, along with speeding the game up with their full court pressure,” Head Coach Mitch Freeman said.
Everett continued to chip away at the lead, with a swarming full-court press, forcing Peninsula into bad shots.
“I thought we were playing not to lose in the first 5-10 minutes in the 2nd half, instead of playing to win, but give Everett credit that they played very aggressive in the 2nd half and made shots,” Freeman said.
With 7-minutes to go in the game, Everett’s Brevin Brown hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 3, at 70-67.
Freeman called a 30-second timeout to stop the frenzy.
“I think their press had something to do with it. They’re not really a great defensive team, they try to outscore their opponents,” Callaghan said.
A minute later, Callaghan drove to the top of the key, raised up and drained a 3-pointer in the face of a defender. The bleachers erupted. The tide had finally turned in favor of Peninsula.
“I found some room and came up. If that shot doesn’t go in, it might be a bad shot. Luckily, it went down and we got some wind off of that,” Callaghan said.
Yes. The momentum had changed.
“That was a big momentum shift when we finally buckled down, got some stops, got some rebounds and pushed it back on offense,” Callaghan said.
With the score at 81-73, the last 3-minutes was a free-throw game where Everett’s only chance was to foul and hope Peninsula kept missing their free-throws.
“We just didn’t give up. We just kept passing the ball and making sure we tried to break them down so we could find open guys,” Amos said.
Peninsula did and held on for a 99-90 win.
“Our guys executed the game plan perfectly at the start and played with so much energy on both ends of the floor. Our guys played together and we were able to get into a rhythm that resulted in 17 assists.
“I thought Dimitri Amos presence inside and on the glass was a game changer, and then Ryley hit a big 3 to extend into a two-possession game. That was a big shot,” Freeeman said.
Ryley Callaghan had 24 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, including 4 from 8 shooting from downtown.
Dimitri Amos hit for 23 points, hauled in 21 rebounds and had 2 blocks.
Peninsula improves to 10-9 (3-2) after a win at Bellevue on Saturday, and faces a 7-9 (2-3) Shoreline team Jan. 30, in Port Angeles.