With four returning starters, it’s impossible to call the Maine Maritime Academy men’s basketball team inexperienced, but with seven of 14 players being freshmen, it’s not exactly a veteran-laden team either.

“I don’t consider this a rebuilding year,” said MMA coach Chris Murphy, now in his 15th season with the Mariners. “I think we have a chance to earn a playoff spot and set ourselves up for next year.”

Especially if some of the freshmen mature and develop quickly.

“We really need our upperclassmen to step up until we get more players into the flow, especially the new guys, said Murphy, who returns six players from last season’s 9-15 squad. “We’ve got some young guys who are going to have to get thrown into the fire and some of those guys are contributing already.”

One of those guys is Todd Pelkey, a 6-foot-3 guard from Gorham whose father Mark starred for Penobscot Valley High School in Howland. Pelkey had six points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals in his debut, a start in Monday’s 84-63 win over Unity College for the 2-1 Mariners.

Pelkey joins a seasoned starting five featuring 5-10 point guard Derek DiFrederico of Millinocket, who was limited to four games last season by injury; 6-4 junior forward Adam Haskell (7.2 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game) of Winslow; 6-0 senior guard Marc McCorrison (10.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg) of Knox; and 6-8 junior center Brandon Hall (11.9 ppg, 8.5 rpg) of Dover-Foxcroft.

“We have a couple kids who are athletic and versatile in Haskell and Hall, who are both capable of dominating a game on their own,” Murphy said. “We want to push it whenever we can, but we do have some size and I think Derek has a chance to be a very good Division III point guard. He can really break teams down off the dribble.”

Freshman forward Jarred Sternbergh of Jonesboro has been the most improved player so far this season.

“He’s a very pleasant surprise being more mobile and athletic. He’s already a big, strong kid, but he did a lot of offseason work to improve greatly,” said Murphy.

As far as the young guys go, 6-7 sophomore center Jarod Oldham of Peru (Maine) and 6-4 sophomore forward Jake Manner of Frankfort will see a lot of minutes along with backup point guard Dylan Costigan, a freshman from Fairfield, and sophomore walk-on guard Tyler Deabay of Carmel, who played in 17 games last season.

“He wanted to play and he listened, learned and figured out what his role was to carve out some effective minutes off the bench last year,” said Murphy. “He’s a guy we want to play defense and stay away from turnovers.”

The Mariners will have to try and make up for the loss of Neil Stewart, MMA’s No. 2 scorer and top rebounder last season, as he is academically ineligible.