MENTONE – It was a perfect sweep of the weekend as Plymouth’s Pilgrims took a second road win in as many nights with a 50-41 win at Tippecanoe Valley.

 

In spite of the nine point spread at the final, neither team was ever comfortable with any lead. And also in spite of the final score the tempo of the game – for two team’s playing a non-conference second game of the weekend – was many times simply frenetic. It led to an uncharacteristic number of turnovers in a normal Plymouth vs. Valley contest and finally played into the hands of the Pilgrims.

 

“It’s never easy coming here they just know how to play the game,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “They’ve come up through a system that they know what to expect they know the right way to play. They showed a lot of fight tonight.”

 

The fight was a big part of both team’s games and another thing as well – fatigue.

 

“I was proud of our kids and the fight that we showed,” said Bales. “I think both teams were suffering a little fatigue setting in. We had our starters play a lot of minutes tonight. At the right time we made some timely plays – some timely steals. The main thing is that we came out with a ‘W’, even if it wasn’t pretty.”

 

The weekend that started with a big win at Elkhart Memorial on Friday night had it’s share of anxious moments on Saturday as the Vikings fought through some poor shooting moments in the first half to go into the locker room trailing by just four.

 

Plymouth had other anxious moments as senior post standout Josh Anders – who came into the weekend with an ankle injury – aggravated that injury in the fourth quarter. Much like Braydon Davidson the night before, Garrett Tharp came on to spell Anders with some crucial minutes at crunch time.

 

“It’s always a question who’s going to be the next guy in. I had a gut feeling about (Garrett) Tharp,” said Bales. “I felt we needed to rebound. He gave us great production.

 

“I don’t know how many rebounds Cam Eveland came up with but it seemed like every rebound he was going up in traffic and coming down with it. Obviously he was very aggressive on the offensive end as well. The fact that he’s rebounding and showing a lot of fight is huge.”

 

Eveland was just shy of a double/double with 11 points and eight rebounds, adding three assists and four steals for good measure. Bales had praise for a couple of other Pilgrims.

 

“We love Nick (Felke) getting to the paint,” said Bales “I thought Josh (Anders) gave us some great minutes. He did an outstanding job in the paint. I thought we were really stagnant tonight on offense at times. We’d get the ball in the post and then stand around. We made an adjustment at halftime.”

 

Plymouth moves to 9-3 on the year. Valley falls to 4-7.

 

 

 

Score by Quarters

Plymouth 12 20 35 50

Valley 12 16 31 41

 

Plymouth (50) – Barron 2 1-2 5, Eveland 4 3-5 11, Carmichael 0 0-0 0, Felke 3 2-2 8, Anders 6 2-2 14, Friar 4 0-0 8, Braydon Davidson 0 0-0 0, Tharp 2 0-0 4. Totals 21 8-11 50.

 

Valley (41) – B. Webster 0 0-0 0, Neeley 3 0-0 9, Wright 0 2-2 2, Craig 3 2-5 9, Bussard 5 2-3 13, Clampitt 0 0-0 0, Duzenbury 4 0-0 8, B. Webster 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 6-10 41.

 

3 Pt. FG – Valley 5-19 (Neeley 3), Plymouth 0-5.

Rebounds – Valley 25 (Clampitt, Duzenbury 6), Plymouth 27 (Eveland 8).

Assists – Valley 2 (Craig, Bussard), Plymouth 7 (Eveland 3).

Steals – Valley 5 (Bussard, Clampitt 2), Plymouth 12 (Eveland 4).

Turnovers – Valley 16, Plymouth 10.

Fouls (Fouled Out) – Valley 12, Plymouth 13.