PORT ANGELES — Seven points isn’t a huge margin, but it kind of caught the Peninsula College men’s basketball team off-guard.
“It felt like we were in control for most of the game, and then, boom, we look up and we’re down seven,” Peninsula point guard Ryley Callaghan said.
Still, it was no reason to panic. Besides, there were still more than 11 minutes remaining in Saturday’s game.
Coach Mitch Freeman called a timeout, changed the defense, and the Pirates finished the game on a 22-11 run to beat Bellevue 68-64.
The victory earned the Peninsula men’s program its first Northwest Athletic Conference North Region championship since 2007-08.
“It’s everything we worked for,” sophomore guard Deonte Dixon.
Although they will host a postseason game March 5, Peninsula College honored its sophomore class Saturday as part of the final regular-season home game.
Those sophomores — Callaghan, Dixon, Dimtri Amos, Malik Mayeux, Chris Reis, C.J. Woods and Johan Cook — make up Freeman’s first legitimate recruiting class and have grown together.
They’ve gone from a team that finished fourth in the North and barely made the postseason before making a run to third place at the NWAC tourney in 2014-15, to a team that entered region play with a 7-7 record this year before getting hot and now leading the North by three games.
Saturday was their eighth straight win.
“I’m really super-excited for our guys,” Freeman said.
“All the time that we have put in the last two years with this class. You know, the ups and downs: last year, doing really well; this year having a rough start, but coming on like gangbusters in league play.
“And they really believe in each other, and confidence is so high right now.”
Peninsula held small leads for most of the game, but the Bulldogs scored nine straight points to lead 53-46 with 11:24 remaining.
The Pirates then switched from a man-to-man defense to a zone, and slowly got back in to the game, finally retaking the lead, 62-60, when Amos scored one of his many post baskets with 4:37 left.
“They made that run, and we had to just counter,” Callaghan said.
“We had guys step up, hit big shots, you know, finish around the rim.
“We were playing a little not-to-lose there for a while in the second half, and we picked it up and just started playing like this is our region so we need to prove it. And we went out and proved it.”
Bellevue tied it again at 64-64, but freshman Darrion Daniels quickly gave Peninsula the lead again with a jumper that made it 66-64 with 1:18 to play.
The Pirates made a few more stops but couldn’t seal the game, and the Bulldogs regained possession with 17 seconds to play.
Bellevue’s Yonathan Michael drove the lane but missed his shot, and Mayeux grabbed the rebound and threw the ball upcourt to Daniels, who layed it in as the buzzer sounded to punctuate the win.
Amos scored a season-high 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting from the field. Most of his field goals were right under the basket after receiving passes off penetration by Callaghan, Dixon and Daniels.
“Just finding the gaps,” Amos said.
“That’s the one thing me and [assistant] coach [Jon] Ing work at all the time. I got to give credit to him.
“Coach Freeman said if I’m within 5 to 7 feet of the basket, don’t pass the ball, just go up, so I just made sure that’s what I was doing.”
Daniels added 13 points, and Callaghan and Dixon each scored eight points for the Pirates.
Peninsula (10-2, 17-9) finishes the season on the road against Skagit Valley (4-8, 11-14) on Wednesday and then Shoreline (4-8, 9-14) on Saturday.
The Pirates have everything they wanted at this point, but they want to keep the winning streak going.
“We’re still going to be playing to win. We don’t want to finish with two losses,” Callaghan said.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
