NEW CARLISLE – Perserverance is becoming the word of the day for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as once again they survived early adversity and came away a winner at New Prairie 60-45.
Trailing at the end of the first quarter and holding just a one point lead at half the Pilgrims again struggled asserting themselves early in the game. Whatever adjustments that were made at halftime turned everything around as Plymouth jumped out quickly in the third quarter and never looked back on the way to their second win in the young season.
“They did an outstanding job taking away the next pass, similar to what we try to do,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “At some point if they are taking away the next pass you’re going to have to drive it, and we talked about getting a shoulder into somebody. We have great guard play and if they are denying that pass they don’t have help up top. Nick Felke and Ryan Carmicheal had some great takes up top that led to some great buckets down low. We did a better job getting to spots.
“The adjustment was drive it harder.”
And find a solution to New Prairie center Tynan Williams who was a one man wrecking crew in the first half with six rebounds and 16 points but found the going much tougher in the second half when he had no rebounds.
“He domintated the first half, he was eating us up inside and we had to do something about it,” said Bales. “We went smaller in the second half which allowed us to be more active on the back side and front the post a little better.Garrett Tharp stepped up in the second half, He stepped up his game defensively, he got a couple of nice chest ins made them shoot over us, took a few charges which is always good.”
There were other things that the head coach would like to see get better as the season goes on.
“I didn’t think we did a very good job in transition tonight, we didn’t get our two and three out quick enough,” said Bales. “That’s something that we’ve got to get better at. We’ve got to get Nate Patterson running the court and that makes such a difference to put pressure on people in transition.”
One thing that has emerged is a depth of players capable of making major contributions. Two new names jumped into the highlight reel in Cam Dennie and Cole Filson.
“The game plan for this group at this point is to go with the hot hand,” said Bales. “It was great to see Cam (Dennie) get that early steal that led to a great transition getting a pass to Nate (Patterson) that time and I think it helped him get going. Filson is a hard nosed kid and he gave us some great minutes. I thought Cole tonight stood out finishing strong and that was great to see.”
Plymouth takes on Triton Tuesday night at Plymouth.
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 10 22 38 60
New Prairie 11 21 31 45
Plymouth (60) – Clay Hilliard 0 2-2 2, Cam Dennie 5 0-0 13, Ryan Carmichael 3 0-0 7, Nick Felke 6 2-5 16, Nathan Patterson 2 0-0 4, Travis Owen 0 0-0 0, Kadin McCrammer 0 0-0 0, Dyllon Pavey 0 0-0 0, Cole Filson 4 0-2 9, Tyler Games 0 0-0 0, Garrett Tharp 3 3-5 9. Totals 23 7-14 60.
New Prairie (45) – Colton Boren 1 1-2 4, Jacob Tuttle 0 0-0 0, Aiden Cotter 2 0-2 4, Kody Webb 1 5-7 7, Zack Ketterer 0 4-4 4, Chase Ketterer 0 0-0 0, Bryce Bloode 3 1-2 10, Tynan Williams 7 2-4 16. Totals 14 13-21 45.
3 Pt. FG – Plymouth 7-12 (Dennie 3), New Prairie 4-14 (Bloode 3).
Rebounds – Plymouth 21 (Tharp 4), New Prairie 22 (Webb 7).
Assists – Plymouth 17 (Felke 7), New Prairie 11 (Webb 4).
Steals – Plymouth 7 (Dennie 4), New Prairie 3 (Williams 2).
Turnovers – Plymouth 9, New Prairie 12.
Fouls (Fouled Out) – Plymouth 21, New Prairie 19.
