In a game that went down to the wire, Bellevue dropped their conference opener against Peninsula Wednesday night.
It was a knock-down, drag-out fight the Pirates and Bulldogs traded baskets. It was a tug-of-war for the first two quarters before Peninsula had an 11-point lead g. In the third Bellevue came roaring back scoring 22 points in the quarter while holding Peninsula to only 6 points. During this period Brown, Mo Bungay and Natalie Amos did a lot of the heavy liftingoffensively, scoring a combined 15 points between them. Bungay herself finished with 11 points.The Bulldogs upped the ante on the defensive end and kept the momentum for much of the third. Guard Cassandra White was the only Pirate that scored all quarter. White led the Pirates in scoring with 12 points by the end of the night.
Peninsula played from behind for much of the 4th, being down 58-52 before going on a 6-point run to end regulation. In overtime the Pirates ended the game on an 8-point swing that was capped off by a clutch 3-pointer by Leilani Padilla, putting them up with 1:04 remaining. Padilla was able to play hero for the Pirates despite having a bad shooting night making 3 out of 13 field goals, good for 8 points. Padilla also lead the Pirates in rebounds with 10.
The Bulldogs weren’t able to respond in their final possession. After a dribble hand-off was broken up by the defense, Guard Makenna Faulkner heaved and missed a potential game tying shot. Faulkner herself had 7 points and 4 rebounds. Bulldogs Forward Amanda Tuckett was the Bulldogs’ leading rebounder with 17 and also chipped in 9 points. Rikki Brown lead all scorers with 15 points. Brown also shot an efficient 3 out of 6 from downtown. Bellevue had only 3 players scoring double-figures, while Peninsula had 4 players in double figures.
Bellevue netted only 36 percent of their shots while Peninsula shot 40 percent. Both teams also shot nearly identical from the 3-point line despite Bellevue doubling Peninsula in shot attempts. Bellevue despite not committing as many turnovers as Peninsula all game they weren’t able to capitalize on the Pirates mistakes. Late in the 4th quarter the Bulldogs threw the ball away 3 times as the Pirates were clawing their way back into the game. The Pirates also edged out the Bulldogs in rebounds, 40 to 36. By many metrics both teams were very close and it looked like it would come down to which team will make the least mistakes. Tonight Peninsulaturned out to be just that.
With this loss the Bulldogs drop to a record of 7 wins and 4 losses. Peninsula improves to 8 wins and 4 losses. Both teams will meet again on February 5th at Peninsula. For now the Bulldogs will go on the road to play Skagit Valley Saturday before returning for a home game versus Whatcom on the 15th.
