PASCO — The Peninsula College women’s basketball team went up against two of the elite teams in the Northwest Athletic Conference this weekend and found it has a lot of work to do to be among them.

The Pirates, who have a lot of new freshmen this season, lost to defending champion Walla Walla 59-44 on Saturday and lost to Columbia Basin, a 2024 Final Four team, 61-56, in the opening weekend Columbia Basin tournament.

One of last year’s returnees, post player Alecsis Smith, had a pair of double-doubles this weekend, going for 15 points and 14 rebounds in Saturday’s loss. Neah Bay’s Ryana Moss also had a good start to the season, scoring in double digits in both games. She scored 10 to go with seven rebounds Saturday.

After a rough first quarter in which Walla Walla scored 26 points, the

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