PLYMOUTH – It was the toughest of losses for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they fell on a dramatic last second shot to South Bend Riley 64-63.
Hitting the first of two free throws Matt Friar gave the Pilgrims a one point lead with four seconds to play. Riley’s Damezi Anderson took a rebound on Friar’s missed second shot, drove the length of the floor and hit a shot with literally no time on the clock to give the Wildcats only their second lead of the game, but good enough for the win.
“I thought we played extremely good basketball for a lot of that game and unfortunately we come out of here with a loss,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “Sometimes that’s the way it goes.
“You have to give them a lot of credit, they continue to play their game they cause a lot of chaos and I think for the most part when we’re in attack mode we play so much better. You can sense when we got tentative it would just feed right into their hands. We were there and we just have to find ways to finish a game like this.”
The Pilgrims led for most of the game playing outstanding team defense and taking Riley out of the full court game they are so comfortable with. On the night the Pilgrims outrebounded the Wildcats and were able to force them into uncharacteristic mistakes in the half court game.
“You never know how a game is going to turn out,” said Bales “We talked a lot about playing a little more Plymouth basketball tonight, and I thought we went at them hard and fought and clawed and played well enough to win this game, A roll here or there changes the result. We played against a great team and had a chance to win the game.”
Two players had break out nights for the new season for Plymouth with Josh Anders posting a double/double (game high 24 points and 11 rebounds) making a statement from the opening tip. Nick Felke arrived in the fourth quarter, hitting crucial bucket, after crucial bucket as the Pilgrims fought to hold the lead.
“Those two played well,” said Bales. “It was good to see Josh get double digits on the boards and we hope that continues. Nick did a great job controlling the game and had a great floor game. I thought Matt Friar gave us great minutes, he’s doing a lot of great little things for us that we’re really liking as a coaching staff.”
“This is just a tough one to swallow tonight.”
Plymouth (5-3) is off for a week taking on Lakeland and Westview in the Westview shootout next Tuesday. Riley is now 8-1.
Score by Quarters
Riley 8 26 41 64
Plymouth 18 29 43 63
Riley (64) – Maurice Scott 4 4-5 14, Jalen Jennings 0 0-1 0, Shamar Dillard 6 0-3 12, Damezi Anderson 7 9-10 23, Dar’Shaun Kirk 1 0-0 2, Roland Austin 0 0-0 0, Rylen Grundy 1 1-2 3, Nate Marino 3 2-2 10, Marion Taylor 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 16-23 64.
Plymouth (63) – Jack Barron 2 1-2 5, Cam Eveland 0 2-2 2, Ryan Carmichael 1 0-0 3, Nick Felke 7 1-2 17, Josh Anders 9 6-6 24, Matt Friar 5 1-2 12, Braydon Davidson 0 0-0 0, Garrett Tharp 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 11-14 63.
3 Pt. FG – Riley 4-15 (Scott, Marino 2), Plymouth 4-9 (Felke 2).
Rebounds – Riley 22 (Dillard, Anderson 7), Plymouth 25 (Anders 11).
Assists – Riley 6 (Scott 5), Plymouth 20 (Barron 6).
Steals – Riley 12 (Scott, Dillard 3), Plymouth 3 (Felke 2).
Turnovers – Riley 9, Plymouth 18.
Fouls (Fouled Out) – Riley 16, Plymouth 16.
