The Vashon Pirates ended the 2008-09 regular season with two league victories last week, bringing their record to 15-4, or 10-2 in the Nisqually League.

On Tuesday night, the Pirates traveled to Tacoma to play the Life Christian Eagles. After three losses in a row, the Pirates were eager to get back to the winning side of the ledger. The Pirates came out moving the ball, hitting their shots, and took an 18-10 first quarter lead.

In the second quarter, the Pirates outscored the Eagles 8-4 to take a 26-14 lead into the locker room.

In the third quarter, the Eagles tried to get back into the game, but still found themselves down by 15 going into the final period, when the Pirates went on a 15-0 run to push their lead to 29 points.

“We did a great job of sharing the ball as a team,” said coach Henry Porter. “As a team we had 20 assists, a season-high for us, with senior Zelda Porter having 11 assists — a Vashon school record for a single game.”

“Zelda did a good job of finding her teammates; her team also did a great job of converting,” he added. “Also chipping in four assists was junior Kiki Means.”

The Pirates were led by Costello with 14 points, Porter 10, Swope 10, Means 9, Dolmseth 3, Kehoe 4, Shotridge with 2 and, in her first varsity appearance, freshman Kelsy Abella with 2 points.

Friday the 13th proved a lucky day for the girls, as they won their last home game 37-27 against Charles Wright.

“All week long, we worked on our defense in practice,” Porter said, “and it showed, holding the Tarriers to zero points in the first quarter and five points total for the first half.”

However, the Pirates only scored 14 points in the first half, he added.

The Pirates moved the ball and got a lot of good looks, but nothing seemed to be going in the basket.

“We should have been up by 20 points in the first half, but we were our own worst enemy,” Porter said.

The Pirates ended their game with a season-low 37 points.

“Another factor for the low scoring affair was 21 turnovers, the majority of them unforced,” Porter said. “I wonder if we were thinking too much on offense and not just playing our game. So this week, we will be working on our offense.”

The game was senior night, so the Pirates paid tribute to their two seniors: Autumn Shotridge and Zelda Porter.

The duo have both been playing the game since they started school, and have been “great leaders and examples to the players who have played with them, and to future players who will someday play high school basketball,” Porter said.

The Pirates will start their post-season run at 5 p.m. Saturday Feb. 21, at Orting High School in a sub-district playoff game against the number-one team in the state — the Seattle Christian Warriors.

The winner of that game will get an automatic bid to state; the loser will host a home playoff game the following Wednesday.

— This article was written with information submitted by coach Henry Porter.