By Lee Horton
Peninsula Daily News

PORT ANGELES — Practice might not make perfect, but it should at least lead to improvement.

And perhaps it will eventually, but right now shooting practice isn’t paying off for the Port Angeles girls basketball team.

The defense was good enough, at least for three quarters, to beat North Kitsap on Tuesday night, but the Roughriders’ offense fell short in a 51-36 Olympic League loss that leaves them two wins behind the Vikings and Sequim.

The Riders host Sequim on Friday.

“We’ve dropped almost everything else we’re doing [in practice],” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said.

“We are working on a variety of approaches to shooting. Mental and emotional. Belief. Passion for shooting, not reluctant shooting. Kind of an attitude about it. Focus on finish or target.

“Kids buy in, kids are working hard. It’s not like they care. They care really deeply, so we can’t get on them too much.

“They’re trying.”

The Riders made only 11 field goals on 46 attempts (24 percent) against North Kitsap.

They actually shot better from 3-point range, making 4 of 15 (still only 27 percent). Sophomore Katyn Flores made 3 of 3 treys, which accounted for all nine of her points.

Junior Emily Johnson returned from injury for her first game in nearly two weeks and led Port Angeles with 10 points. That included 6 of 8 shooting from the free-throw line.

North Kitsap, meanwhile, shot 48 percent from the field, including 56 percent on its two-point attempts.

“They just flat out beat us. There’s no big strategy,” Poindexter said.

“Make some lay-ins, make some free throws, make some 10-foot shots, then it’s a game. [Thirty-six points] is the story of our life this year.

“What we haven’t done, we haven’t allowed 51 much. That was unusual and I think we were taking a few defensive chances there at the end.

“We felt the need to gamble a little bit, and it cost us because the kids were exhausted.”

The Vikings became only the second team — the first from Olympic League — to surpass 50 points against Port Angeles this season (Black Hills scored 55 last month).

After three quarters, the Vikings (5-5, 9-7) were on pace to be yet another team to be held to 40 point or less by the Riders, who average 38 points allowed per game.

Port Angeles freshman Natalie Steinman made a 3-pointer near the end of the third quarter to cut North Kitsap’s lead to 31-27 going into the fourth.

The Vikings, though, took off in the final period, opening with seven unanswered points to go up 38-27.

Nizhoni Wheeler made two free throws for the Riders to end run but not the onslaught. North Kitsap followed a 10-0 scoring streak to build a 48-29 lead with 2:17 remaining in the game.

Vikings senior Rebekah Baugh took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of her game-high 19 points and making three of her five 3-pointers in the game.

In what was likely her final game against Port Angeles, Baugh finally broke out.

“She has not had one of those games in four years against us,” Poindexter said of Baugh, who next year will play for Division II Saint Martin’s University in Lacey.

“She’s [been] the best shooter in the league for four years. She has not scored like that on us.

“I said to her after the game, ‘That’s the best you’ve played against us.’”

Port Angeles (3-6, 7-10) still has a fairly comfortable lead over North Mason (1-8, 6-11) and Bremerton (1-8, 6-11) for the Olympic League’s fourth and final district tournament berth.

Port Angeles has another important game as its jostles for postseason seeding when it hosts rival Sequim (5-5, 9-9) on Friday at 5:15 p.m.

But Poindexter said the Riders’ focus right now is solely on themselves.

“The players we have want to fix the scoring problem just as badly as we coaches want to see it be fixed,” he said.

“They are tired of their defensive efforts not being rewarded with more wins.

“They are a hard-working, committed group of young women. I hope for their sake we turn the corner in scoring before this season ends.”

Poindexter added, “We’re going to keep pushing, get as good as we can as fast as we can.”

The Wolves ended their nearly eight-year losing streak to Port Angeles with a 35-33 win at home earlier this month.

North Kitsap 51, Port Angeles 36

North Kitsap 8 14 9 20— 51

Port Angeles 10 6 11 9— 36

Individual scoring

North Kitsap (51)

Lemmon 11, Hamblet 2, O. Selembo 11, Baugh 19, Mackenzie 6, J. Selembo 2, Krol.

Port Angeles (36)

Boe 4, Lunt 2, Johnson 10, Steinman 3, Flores 9, Baxley 2, Wheeler 6, Robideau, Buchanan.