PLYMOUTH – It was a return to what makes Plymouth basketball what it is as the Pilgrims used a stifling defense to take a big NLC win over Northridge 54-48 and keep themselves in the running for the conference title.
And it was a return to “Plymouth Basketball” that was the key to the win.
“It’s been on the board all week if we had a board,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “We spent a lot more time on defense this week than offense and that may have shown in some of our offensive execution. Very proud of our effort. We won this game because of defense. Everytime Northridge made a run we had a response.”
It started early and often for the Pilgrims.
“It started with Nick Felke having a little reach from behind to knock a ball away and then we started playing with some more energy,” said Bales. “I thought we competed very hard in the post. We’re going to see that a lot as we go on, the way we play defense we’re going to see a lot of that. People are going to try to expose our guards inside, and I thought we played really hard. Most importantly we finished the job on the rebounds.”
The Pilgrims also emphasized runs during a long week of practice – getting a series of consecutive possessions that result in positive outcomes.
“We’ve been charting ‘stop-score-stops’ to try to emphasize getting runs,” said Bales. “In the first half I think we had one. That was it. We ended up with eight in the second half. That’s a tribute to our kids. They made the plays.”
The Pilgrims also pulled out a full court pressure that kicked it all into high gear.
“Putting some pressure on them in the full court seemed to change the dynamic for us being a little more aggressive,” said Bales. “I think you can see that (Northridge guard Kurtis) Hochsteter is capable of going crazy and (Luke) Morrison as well and the two of them combined to shoot eight of 27 – I think we had them – so for us to make them work that way was great for our kids.”
The credit for the win, according to Bales went beyond the starting five.
“It’s been fun seeing guys get on the floor and get after each other in practice,” he said, “I know our bench guys didn’t have a lot of minutes but they are a big part of tonight – us competing and getting after it – that’s not going to show in a box score but they had just as much an impact to get our team ready for a night like tonight.”
It was also a night for a team win.
“What great balance?” said Bales. “Anders comes out playing with pneumonia and gives us a lot of minutes, Cam Eveland played very aggressive Jack Barron hit some big shots to get us going. That’s huge when you get team balance. I’m very proud of our effort, great team effort.”
Plymouth is now 11-4 and Northridge is 3-10.
Score by Quarters
Northridge 5 25 34 48
Plymouth 11 23 40 54
Northridge (48) – Utley 5 1-2 14, Wine 0 0-0 0, Yoder 0 0-0 0, Hochstetler 4 1-2 10, Morrison 4 1-2 10, Kennedy 2 0-0 4, Welker 1 0-0 2, Bach 4 0-0 8. Totals 20 2-4 48.
Plymouth (54) – Barron 2 0-0 6, Eveland 2 0-2 5, Carmichael 0 0-0 0, Felke 3 10-10 16, Anders 7 5-5 19, Friar 3 2-2 8, Davidson 0 0-0 0, Tharp 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 17-19 54.
3 Pt. FG – Northridge 6-23 (Utley 3), Plymouth 3-8 (Barron 2).
Rebounds – Northridge 20 (Hochstetler 6), Plymouth 26 (Anders 6).
Assists – Northridge 10 (Utley, Wine, Hochsteter, Morrison, Kennedy 2), Plymouth 14 (Felke, Eveland 4).
Steals – Northridge 8 (Hochstetler 4), Plymouth 5 (Felke 3).
Turnovers – Northridge 9, Plymouth 12.
Fouls (Fouled Out) – Northridge 16, Plymouth 12.
JV Score – Plymouth 46, Northridge 38
