WARSAW – Hot shooting, strong defense and a little bit of moxy from a freshman helped Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrims jump to an early cushion and ride it to a win at Warsaw Saturday night 41-25.
Plymouth jumped to an early 12-2 lead in the first four minutes helped by outstanding ball movement on offense, and some help off the bench from Alli Andrews who showed that she’s taken her game to another level with a pair of threes and deflections on defense that helped open up the game and keep Plymouth in position to take their first NLC win of the new season.
“This is a difficult place to win ballgames,” said Plymouth Coach Dave Duncan. “Obviously we got off to the good start. Our kids fought through a lot of adversity through the whole game and fought through it and found a way to win the game.”
The big early lead helped the Lady Pilgrims stave off several runs by Warsaw but the Lady Tigers could never really recover from a poor night shooting – both from the floor and the line.
“Our concentration level in the first couple of minutes was really good,” said Duncan. “We made good decisions on both ends of the floor passing the ball and defending. Then we started that roller coaster where maybe that concentration wasn’t as good.”
Haley Harrell continued to impress with 10 points, three assists and four steals. She continues to log big minutes in big situations.
“I would love to get Haley off the floor a little more its difficult because she’s kind of the glue to our team. She’s a born leader and an overachiever,” said Duncan. “There were moments where we thought we were a little bit stagnant but then out of nowhere we were able to move the ball around and get high quality shots. We’ve been able to do that lately.”
Bottom line, Plymouth stands at 8-1 with a very challenging week ahead.
“Our kids are happy, they have a good start to the NLC and the nice thing is you won but now Tuesday we have Glenn coming up and then Friday NorthWood to finish the year off.”
Score by Quarters
Warsaw 9 13 20 25
Plymouth 17 23 32 41
Plymouth (41) – Stevens 3 1-1 7, Andrews 2 0-1 6, Fosler 2 0-0 4, Harrell 1 7-8 10, Wright 1 1-1 3, Morwood 0 0-0 0, Stephenson 2 0-0 4, Singleton 1 0-0 2, Horvath 2 1-2 5. Totals 14 10-13 41.
Warsaw (25) – Desenberg 2 0-2 4, Rivera 1 0-0 2, Welk 0 0-0 0, Harris 1 2-3 4, Carlson 0 0-0 0, Groninger 3 2-2 10, Miller 1 1-4 3, Clemens 0 2-6 2. Totals 8 7-17 25.
3 Pt. FG – Warsaw 2-8 (Groninger 2), Plymouth 3-8 (Andrews 2).
Rebounds – Warsaw 15 (Groninger 5), Plymouth 19 (Harrell 4).
Assists – Warsaw 5 (Harris 2), Plymouth 8 (Harrell 3).
Steals – Warsaw 9 (Groninger 4), Plymouth 13 (Harrell 4).
Turnovers – Warsaw 19, Plymouth 16.
Fouls (Fouled out) – Warsaw 16, Plymouth 18.
