PLYMOUTH – It was a night of missed opportunities for Plymouth as the Pilgrims fell to Peru – their first loss of the new season – by a final of 49-47.
Leading by as many as 11 in the game it seemed that no lead was ever safe as the Pilgrims came roaring back. In the end Plymouth was unable to take advantage of key mistakes by the Tigers in falling at home.
“It was just an uphill battle the entire night,” said Plymout coach Ryan Bales. “We were clawing and scrapping just to stay in it. They came out on fire and hit shots had a lot of energy. They won the game. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.
“They’ve been a very dangerous team in the games we’ve seen them play, Tonight I think they just put together a more complete game then they’ve played.”
Complete but not perfect as down the stretch the Pilgrims were able to make a run because of some key errors. Turnovers and missed free throws in the game’s final 1:15 gave the Pilgrims hope, but they couldn’t find enough points to make it hurt.
“We didn’t handle it real well at times and that’s where we’re going to have to go back and work on the execution part,” said Bales. “Defensively we forced 21 turnovers – a lot of those were in the last quarter. We turned up the intensity a little bit – got a little mean for awhile – we have to do more of that for longer stretches of time. The other part to that is we forced 21 turnovers but we only get 47 points. We have to do a better job capitalizing. Wasn’t a great shooting night.”
Plymouth was just 19 of 54 (35 percent) shooting on the night and an abysmal 7 of 27 (25 percent) from three point range. Meanwhile Peru shot 57 percent (16 of 28) and a red hot seven of 11 (63 percent) beyond the arc.
Meanwhile defense was not an issue.
“I thought we had some great defensive possessions,” said Bales “There were just a few key moments, giving up a few offensive boards in the first half where they get more of an opportunity to finish, couple of times they go to the basket and we foul them a little light and they get an ‘and one’ call. You can’t let them get a shot off. We go back to work.”
A bright spot was senior Josh Anders having his best game of the new campaign going to the basket with authority and ending the night with 15 points, five rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
“He played really well tonight, really aggressively,” said Bales. “I thought he did an outstanding job finishing inside. He put himself in position tonight our guys did a good job of finding him it’s just a case where we have to do a better job finishing.”
“We had a chance to make a run there (at the end) and we didn’t do a very good job of getting guys to spots, That falls on me.”
Plymouth is now 5-1 and Peru moves to 2-2.
Score by Quarters
Peru 12 26 36 49
Plymouth 9 24 27 47
Peru (49) – Christian Howell 2 0-0 6, Jeremiah Johnson 5 2-7 12, Tyler Murphy 3 2-3 12, Jonah Lester 2 1-1 6, Bailey Gardner 3 0-0 8, Cameron Beauchamp 1 0-0 2, Kordell Prescott 0 3-4 3. Totals 16 10-16 49.
Plymouth (47) – Trevor Neidlinger 0 0-0 0, Jack Barron 4 0-0 10, Cam Eveland 2 0-2 6, Ryan Carmichael 1 0-0 3, Nick Felke 4 0-0 10, Josh Anders 7 1-4 15, Matt Friar 1 1-2 3, Brayden Davidson 0 0-0 0, Garrett Tharp 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 2-8 47.
3 Pt. FG – Peru 7-11 (Howell, Murphy, Gardner 2), Plymouth 7-27 (Barron, Eveland, Felke 2).
Rebounds – Peru 28 (Johnson 13), Plymouth 26 (Eveland 7).
Assists – Peru 13 (Johnson 5), Plymouth 11 (Felke 7).
Steals – Peru 6 (Murphy 2), Plymouth 11 (Felke 3).
Fouls (Fouled Out) – Peru 12, Plymouth 15.
