PLYMOUTH – It was literally a battle of attrition and in the end Plymouth had one more basket as they won a dog fight with LaPorte by a 69-68 final.
With under 30 seconds and trailing 68-67 the Pilgrims had the ball looking for one final shot. Clay Hilliard got a wide open look at three and though it wouldn’t fall, somehow Plymouth’s Bryce Carmicheal was able to outfight two LaPorte Slicers to grab the rebound, flip it to Cole Filson who took it straight to the hoop for a layup to put the Pilgrims ahead with just four seconds on the clock.
Plymouth would withstand the last second shot and walk away with a last man standing win over LaPorte.
“LaPorte is a heckuva team,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “They are coached up to play a certain way and play very hard and play with some passion. Both teams went at each other all night. They got a little separation from us and we just seemed to have a response every single time. I can’t explain it other than we fought through some things again tonight. The goal is to go to the locker room dead tired. At the end of the game – win or lose – we would have gone to the locker room dead tired.”
After a hard fought game over Concord for an NLC win the night before, once again the Plymouth bench, was instrumental with many players in the rotation.
“It’s a true team win,” said Bales. “The bench was into it the entire game. We had some things that didn’t go our way tonight and I felt like we always had each other’s backs.”
“We have a little different mindset right now between the ears,” said Bales. “We got some great contributions from our bench. We went to some guys to get some fresh legs. Every single guy competed hard and every minute out here counts. We didn’t miss a beat when we went to our bench.”
Again Bryce Carmichael and his help underneath was able to stop a great post attack from LaPorte with the outstanding post presence of Grant Ott-Large and Drake Gunn.
“They attacked us in the paint and they did an outstanding job execution wise,” said Bales. “We showed some guts and found a way to win by one. That’s the bottom line.”
For the second weekend the Pilgrims were able to come out with a pair of wins over very physical opponents. A good sign for the future as they face a tough home stretch in the NLC and then the sectional tournament.
Plymouth runs to 11-3 on the year with a three game stretch on the road coming up against Wawasee, Northridge and Mishawaka. LaPorte is now 8-5.
•PLYMOUTH 69, LaPORTE 68
at Plymouth
LaPorte 14 25 12 16 – 68
Plymouth 12 22 16 10 – 69
LaPorte (68) – Nichols 0 0-0 0, Marker 2 0-0 6, White 0 0-0 0, Crass 0 0-0 0, Garrott Ott-Large 5 0-0 14, Spence 4 2-3 13, Gunn 7 3-4 17, Schroeder 1 0-0 2, Grant Ott-Large 8 0-0 16. Totals 27 5-7 68.
Plymouth (69) – Hilliard 6 10-11 25, Carmichael 1 1-1 3, Filson 7 4-4 19, Reichard 5 3-4 15, Dolan 0 0-0 0, Tremaine 0 0-0 0, Barron 1 1-1 3, Winkle 1 0-0 2, Styers 1 0-0 2, Himes 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 19-21 69.
3 Pt. FG – LaPorte 9-24 (Garrett Ott-Large 4), Plymouth 6-21 (Hilliard 3)
Rebounds – LaPorte 28 (Gunn 11), Plymouth 23 (Filson 8).
Assists – LaPorte 17 (Nichols 5), Plymouth 17 (Dolan 5).
Steals – LaPorte 4 (Spence 2), Plymouth 8 (Barron, Winkle 2).
Turnovers – LaPorte 12, Plymouth 8.
Fouls (Fouled out) – LaPorte 12, Plymouth 10.
