Sequim Gazette staff

Lowest seed in the tournament? No problem.

Peninsula College men’s basketball team was the surprise story of the NWAC championships last March, bringing home a third-place trophy, and the team looks loaded for another long playoff run.

Peninsula coach Mitch Freeman and his staff have four starters back, eight sophomores with game experience, and a good recruiting class  looking to take the Pirates to the NWAC championship.

“We are excited about this year’s team and look to build off of how we finished last year,” Freeman said. “We return nine players and add six freshmen, which gives the added depth to our team that we did not have last season. Our team was very excited with the way we finished last year but were also a little disappointed, which left them hungry and wanting more.”

The list of returners is headed up by Ryley Callaghan, a 6-foot 1-inch sophomore guard from Port Orchard who led the Pirates in scoring with a 17.5 average, and assists at 2.7 last year.

Also putting up big numbers last year was Deonte Dixon, a 6-foot 2-inch sophomore guard from Bremerton who averaged 16.4 points per game.

Both Callaghan and Dixon were named to the North Division All-Conference Team in 2015.

The Pirates return their leading rebounder in 6-6 sophomore Malik Mayeux of Tacoma, who pulled down 154 boards last year, a 7.3 average per game. Also returning with a significant contribution to last year’s successful season are: Jeremiah Hobbs, a 6-foot 4-inch forward from Seattle; Jonah Cook, a 6-foot 9-inch forward from Mount Vernon; Chris Reis, a 5-foot 9-inch guard from Spokane, and Zach Nibler, a 6-foot 4-inch forward from Olympia.

Peninsula’s other two returners are red-shirt freshman C.J. Woods, a 6-foot guard from Friday Harbor who was injured last year, and red-shirt sophomore Dimitri Amos, a 6-foot 6-inch forward from Las Vegas, Nev., who promises to make a big impact in the paint for the Pirates. He played his freshman year at Mayville State University in North Dakota.

“I thought that the guys worked extremely hard in the off season, both in the weight room and on the court, to improve themselves individually,” said Freeman, who enters his third year at the Pirate helm.

That coaching staff recruited a class of freshmen that includes: Alex Baham, a 6-foot 4-inch guard from Wasilla, Alaska; Darrior Daniels, a 5-foot 10-inch guard from Las Vegas; Omar Lo, a 6-foot 6-inch guard from Los Angeles; Alex Losee, a 6-foot 6-inch forward from South Jordan, Utah; Jason McCullough, a 5-foot 9-inch guard from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Abraham Venske, a 6-foot 2-inch guard from Neah Bay.

The Peninsula men opened their non-conference schedule at home on Nov. 20 against Big Bend.

The Pirates host Tacoma on Dec. 5 (time to be determined) and South Puget Sound at 1 p.m.on Dec. 6.

Peninsula jumps into North Division play beginning Jan. 9 at Edmonds.