PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula Pirates host Edmonds for their North Division women’s and men’s basketball home openers Wednesday.
For the Peninsula women, it will be the first home game of the 2013-14 season — and the road has not been kind.
The Pirates are 3-8 and looking to turn things around with the help of the home fans. Tipoff for the women against Edmonds (1-10) is 5 p.m.
The Peninsula men’s game marks the first home conference game for first-year head coach Mitch Freeman.
The Pirates men started the season 6-1 and earned a No. 8 spot in the Alaska Airlines NWAACC Coaches Poll, but have since dropped three straight games, all on the road.
The men, too, will return to their home crowd looking to get back in the win column against a Triton team that is 8-6. Tipoff follows the women’s game at approximately 7 p.m.
The Peninsula women are coming off a season that saw Taylor Larson, Karli Brakes and Jonica Durbin rewrite the Pirate scoring, assist, steal and blocked shot records, but those sophomores have moved on and the 2013-14 squad is still finding its way.
Port Angeles sophomore Alison Knowles is averaging 13.9 points per game to lead the Pirates.
Freshman Gabi Fenumiai of Juneau, Alaska, is right behind at 12.8 points and her 13.1 rebounds is second in the NWAACC in that category.
Another freshman, Madison Pilster of Snake River, Idaho, also is scoring in double figures with an 11.8 average. She is also pulling down 8.6 rebounds.
Sophomore Pherrari Brumbaugh leads the team in assists with 2.9 per game.
The women are coming off a 76-62 setback in their conference opener Saturday at Whatcom.
The Pirates, who were 0-13 from three-point range, could hit only 34 percent from the floor, while the Orcas hit on 43 percent.
Peninsula was led by Fenumiai’s 17 points and nine rebounds, 13 from Knowles and 10 points and nine boards from Pilster.
The Pirate men this season are led by Xavier Bazile, who is averaging 21.8 points per game, the eighth highest in the NWAACC, since becoming eligible in December.
The Tacoma sophomore also is leading the team in rebounds with 6.8.
The only other Pirate scoring in double figures with 13.9 per game is sophomore T.J. McKinney of Anchorage, Alaska.
Erron Shamlin leads the team in assists with 3.5 per game.
The Peninsula men fell in their conference opener at Whatcom, 99-76.
The NWAACC’s fourth-ranked Orcas outshot the Pirates 61 percent to 40 percent and outrebounded them 43-27 to account for the lopsided outcome.
Bazile led Peninsula with 21 points and six rebounds, Daren Hechanova added 18 points and five assists and Markus Rawls chipped in 11 points.
