MISHAWAKA – It was a tough Tuesday night for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they dropped a second straight game in a similar fashion to Penn by a 51-34 final.

Trailing by just a basket at the end of three quarters the Kingsman shut down the Pilgirm offense in the game’s final eight minutes. Controlling the boards Penn held the Pilgrims to one shot each time down the floor and coasted to a win.

Penn held the Pilgrims to just four points in the game’s final quarter.

The Pilgrims had seven players score in the game – a good thing – but not a single player in double digits. Not such a good thing.

“We never really seemed to get into a rhythm on the offensive end,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “When you don’t get into rhythm that’s where we had some turnovers. It’s a bad feeling over the course of the game when you aren’t getting shots and we aren’t getting the ball into the hands of guys in the spots where we need it. Obviously we aren’t in a very good place right now.”

Plymouth started well and in spite of an uncharacteristic number of turnovers for both teams in the first half, it was a tightly played affair with neither team able to extend more than a point or two lead. Disaster hit the Pilgrims at the end of the first quarter when point guard Nick Felke went down with an ankle injury.

The Plymouth junior tried to return but other than a brief stint early in the second quarter Felke was unable to return to the floor, making things more difficult for the Plymouth offense.

“That’s true but we still have some guys out there that can make plays,” said Bales. “Even our big guys – Friar and Anders – they’ve been around. They’re seniors. This is a veteran group. Losing Nick didn’t help things but that’s not an excuse. It’s about fundamental plays.”

Cutting down the turnovers in the second half, the Pilgrims were still unable to make shots fall – a similar theme to last Friday night’s loss at Warsaw.

“It’s not about the turnovers as much as the way we turned the ball over,” said Bales. “It’s like we were attacking when we should have been passing and passing when we should have been attacking. That kind of goes back to that rhythm on the offensive end.”

It also left Bales and his team with some question marks heading into the stretch run to the sectional and a game at Huntington on Friday night.

“We’re kind of soul searching right now. We aren’t where we want to be,” said Bales. “We’re going to have to find a way to get a spark lit and get back to doing some of the things we were doing in the month of January. We’ll see where we go from here.”

Plymouth is now 14-6 while Penn is now 20-9.

 

Score by Quarters

Plymouth 11 18 30 34

Penn 13 20 32 51

 

Plymouth (34) – Neidlinger 0 0-0 0, Barron 1 2-2 5, Eveland 2 0-0 5, Carmichael 1 0-0 2, Felke 1 0-2 2, Hillard 0 0-0 0, Pavey 0 0-0 0, Anders 4 0-0 8, Friar 3 0-0 6, Davidson 2 0-0 6, Tharp 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 2-4 34.

 

Penn (51) – Segar 1 2-2 5, Lutz 0 0-0 0, Doslak 3 1-2 8, Applegate 5 1-2 11, Dittrich 3 4-4 10, McCown 0 0-0 0, Trewhella 5 6-6 17. Totals 17 14-16 51.

 

3 Pt. FG – Plymouth 4-12 (Davidson 2), Penn 3-7 (Segar, Doslak, Trewhella).

Rebounds – Plymouth 13 (Anders 4), Penn 22 (Applegate 7).

Assists – Plymouth 9 (Barron 3), Penn 7 (Trewhella 3).

Steals – Plymouth 8 (Eveland 3), Penn 7 (Doslak, Trewhella 2).

Turnovers – Plymouth 15, Penn 14.

Fouls (Fouled Out) – Plymouth 16 (Eveland), Penn 7.