PLYMOUTH – Plymouth coach Dave Duncan had the understatement of the night.
“It’s never easy,” he said watching his Lady Pilgrims outlast Winamac in a double-overtime battle 47-41.
“If this isn’t a sectional like game you aren’t going to get anything closer than that,” said Duncan. “The scores are going to go down. It’s going to be about hitting free throws, it’s going to be about taking care of the ball. We just managed to have the ball in our hands at the end of both overtimes and the end of regulation and we finally started making some plays at the end.”
Plymouth survived a night when they were just 14-44 from the field (31 percent) and two of 20 from three-point range to take the win.
A huge night on the offensive glass from Winamac helped the Warriors to a lead in the second quarter that they wouldn’t relinquish until overtime.
“Winamac is a good team. We talked to our kids six minutes into the first quarter,” said Duncan. “They had six fouls and we continued to shoot jump shots for six minutes so we tried to make adjustments there. We struggled on offense there and obviously, they had something to do with it.”
“Tonight the shots weren’t going in,” he said. “I felt like we kept settling for jump shots and towards the end, we just started putting the ball in Lindsay’s (Janus) hands and let her start making some plays. You just had to gut it out for whatever you could get for a scoring opportunity.”
Speaking of gutting it out, in spite of a very tough night shooting, Plymouth’s Tallulah Gault (2-12) hit what may have been the biggest shot of the game in the fourth quarter, a deep three from the corner to tie it at 38.
Maybe the biggest shots of the game were a two for two from the free throw line from Emma Cook in the second overtime that would give Plymouth what would be the game winning shots.
A very tough second quarter for Plymouth helped Winamac to a lead they wouldn’t give up until overtime. The Warriors outscored Plymouth 14-6 in that frame. The Lady Pilgrims managed just two baskets from the field.
Winamac’s defense had an answer underneath for a Plymouth advantage doing a solid job of keeping passes out of the post and closing any opening with a double team when the Lady Pilgrims were able to get an entry pass.
“We felt like Taylor (Delp) had a mismatch most of the night and we never were very successful getting her the ball,” said Duncan. “Those are things that we need to work on. We are going to see this kind of defense throughout the tourney and we have to handle that. I was proud of our kids for gutting it out.”
The win takes Plymouth over the .500 mark at 9-8 with a big week of games starting Thursday with NorthWood and finishing with Wawasee on Saturday.
*PLYMOUTH 47, WINAMAC 41 2OT
Plymouth 12 18 28 36 38 47
Winamac 9 23 32 36 38 41
at Plymouth
Plymouth (47) – Cook 0 2-2 2, Janus 4 4-6 12, Delp 1 7-9 9, Dragani 1 1-2 4, Gault 2 1-4 6, Dejarnatt 1 0-0 2, Sheedy 5 2-2 12. Totals 14 17-25 47.
Winamac (41) – A. Gearhart 2 1-2 5, Kroft 2 5-7 9, Villanueve 3 3-3 9, #5 Maggie Smith 3 2-2 9, E. Gearhart 0 2-2 2, Campbell 2 1-1 5, #24 Maggie Smith 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 14-17 41.
3 Pt. FG – Plymouth 2-20 (Dragani, Gault), Winamac 1-11 (Smith).
Rebounds – Plymouth 31 (Delp 10), Winamac 28 (#5 M. Smith 14)
Assists – Plymouth 9 (Janus 3), Winamac 1 (Kroft).
Steals – Plymouth 10 (Janus 4), Winamac 6 (Kroft 3).
Turnovers – Plymouth 9, Winamac 12
Fouls (Fouled out) – Plymouth 15, Winamac 15 (#5 Maggie Smith).
