PORT ANGELES —Discarded water cups litter the space near the Peninsula College men’s basketball team’s bench after every game.
There must have been something in the water in those cups Saturday — a possible explanation for the 12 consecutive made free throws the Pirates converted in the final 3:46 of play to pull out a 70-65 victory against Shoreline.
“We didn’t overlook Shoreline,” Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman said.
“They run good action and they have some guys who can really knock down shots.
“It was a nailbiter, for sure.”
The Pirates (5-2, 12-9) now sit in second place in Northwest Athletic Conference North Region play after a homestand sweep of Skagit Valley and Shoreline.
Peninsula scored the first eight points against the Dolphins Saturday, and led by as much as 32-16 with five minutes left in the first half.
Three-point shooting was key for the Pirates’ early advantage. Chris Reis knocked down three treys and Ryley Callaghan drained two early triples for Peninsula.
Shoreline dug in, using a 9-0 run to cut into the Pirates’ lead and trail 35-27 at halftime.
Deonte Dixon had 10 of his team-high 17 points in the first half for Peninsula.
“Ryley and Deonte did what they needed to do as the guys that are the leaders of our program,” Freeman said.
“I thought they really stepped up when they needed to and gave us energy when we needed it.”
Callaghan finished with 13 points, five assists and two steals.
Peninsula owned a 25-16 rebounding advantage in the first half, including outboarding the Dolphins 10-5 on the offensive glass.
The Pirates pushed their advantage back to 15, 49-34, with 13 minutes to go in the game, before the Dolphins began to make life difficult for the Peninsula offense.
“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm [offensively],” Freeman said.
“And a lot of that was because they were changing up defenses consistently, so we had to adjust.”
Shoreline whittled away at the Pirates’ lead, as Jason Smarr, Ben Steinbrueck, Gadisa Margasa and Skyler Kelley heated up from the floor.
“They have a lot of action where they run guys off multiple screens, and that’s tough, that’s a challeng,” Freeman said.
“It’s something we need to be better at defending, so we will look at that.”
Peninsula did do a solid job down low defensively, taking Dolphins posts Torrence Baker and Joe Ghrebrehiwot out of the flow of the game offensively.
“Jeremiah Hobbs did a great job of not giving Baker clean looks in the post, which I thought was really important,” Freeman said.
Malik [Mayeux] kept a lot of basketballs alive. And Mayeux and Dimitri [Amos] had some great stretches for us.”
Peninsula’s offense nearly became entirely free-throw dependent in the final minutes.
Darrion Daniels started the trek to the free throw line on a drive with 3:46 to play.
He then hit two more in a 1-and-1 situation with under 3 minutes to play for a 60-52 Pirates lead.
Dixon hit a pair, Amos managed another two makes and the Peninsula lead was six, 64-58, with 1:18 to go.
Still, Shoreline managed to pull within two, 64-62 with 34.9 seconds to play.
But the Pirates’ shots stayed true from the line.
Mayeux cashed in two freebies, and Daniels two more for a 68-62 lead with less than 20 seconds to play.
A Dixon layup after an Amos rebound and outlet pass sealed the deal for Peninsula.
“I was really proud of what we did defensively for the full 40 minutes,” Freeman said.
“We changed it up a little bit, but for the most part we were in man-to-man, and we got stops when we needed to.
“And hit our free throws, yes. That was so important.”
The win concluded the first half of North Region play for the Pirates.
Peninsula trails first-place Edmonds (6-1, 17-3) by a game, and the Tritons will pay Port Angeles a visit at 6 p.m. Saturday.
The top two teams in each region earn the right to host a playoff game.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
