PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College men’s basketball coach Mitch Freeman had a simple message for his team at halftime of its game against Olympic: relax.
The Pirates were trailing Olympic 41-37. They were flirting with falling to 1-3 in Northwest Athletic Conference North Division play with a matchup against the conference’s No. 1-ranked team looming Saturday.
Peninsula’s two leading scorers, both freshmen, were facing their hometown team.
“I thought we played tight in the first half. We put so much pressure on ourselves,” Freeman said.
“So at the halftime, I just sat down with them on a chair and said, ‘Hey, relax. Play hard. This is just a basketball game.’
“And I think that loosened them up in the second half.”
Peninsula responded by outscoring the Rangers 44-32 in the second half to win Wednesday’s game 81-73.
“I think we just started playing loose,” Ryley Callaghan, who led the Pirates with 23 points and five assists, said.
“We kind of played a little tight in the first half, but we just started playing loose and playing basketball.
“I think this was one of our better games, definitely one of our better second halves, for sure.”
Peninsula’s offense made 15 of 28 shots in the second half (53 percent).
The defense held Olympic to 40 percent shooting, after it made 51 percent in the first half, by turning the Rangers into jump shooters.
“We kept them out of the paint a little bit more,” Freeman said.
“And we rebounded the ball effectively, like we had been all year.”
The Pirates’ offense flowed better, helped by the contributions from the post by Jonah Cook and Jal Deng.
Deng scored 14 of his 16 points after halftime
“Jal Deng finally got touches inside. And with that, we finally were able to get some easier baskets,” Freeman said.
“We need that. You can’t live and die off 15-foot jump shots.”
Cook, a 6-foot-9 freshman, came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points.
Only four of his points were scored in the second half, but they came from his two most memorable plays of the night.
With less that 14 minutes remaining in the game, Cook, by far the tallest player either roster, drove through traffic from the 3-point line to the hoop for a layup.
A few minutes later, he followed a miss by Callaghan with a put-back dunk.
“That was probably one our biggest spark plugs,” Callaghan said of Cook.
“I mean, I missed the layup and he just tip-dunked it, and I was like, ‘Oh, my!’
“Once the crowd gets up like that, it’s hard not to play with a little chip on your shoulder.
“And then he had a dish for an assist. It was awesome.
“I hope that was his coming-out party. He played great.”
Deonte Dixon also reached double-figures for Peninsula with 15 points, all but four coming in the second half.
Callaghan said that he and Dixon, Peninsula’s leading scorers who are from Port Orchard and Bremerton, respectively, felt a little more pressure playing against Olympic (0-4, 5-11), and that it was nice to beat their hometown team.
More importantly, though, was a win that kept the Pirates from dropping further down the North Division standings.
“Huge, huge. We needed it. Falling 1-3 wasn’t an option for us,” Callaghan said.
“It was definitely a must-win for us. We go 2-2, we got the No. 1 team on Saturday. I think we’re ready to play them and beat them.”
Peninsula (2-2, 9-7) hosts top-ranked Bellevue (4-0, 17-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Bulldogs are coming off an 84-82 overtime win over second-ranked Edmonds (3-1, 15-4) on Wednesday.
Peninsula 81, Olympic 73
Olympic 41 32— 73
Peninsula 37 44— 81
Individual scoring
Olympic (73)
Butler 2, Williams 20, Neal 12, Travis 4, Peppers 14, Martin 9, Paul 9, Reed 3, Dow.
Peninsula (81)
Callaghan 23, Mayeux 6, Dixon 15, Hobbs 4, Deng 16, Ironside 3, Cook 14, Domach.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
