GOSHEN – Plymouth’s Pilgrims were able to set the table for an NLC Championship game next week at Warsaw taking their sixth straight conference win over Goshen 65-60 and setting up the showdown next Friday.
It was a red hot shooting Matt Friar early and a lot of Nick Felke and Cam Eveland late as the Pilgrims jumped ahead on three straight baskets by Friar and survived a run by Goshen late to take the win. Felke had a third straight outstanding game with 22 points and five assists. Eveland added 16 with three rebounds and assists.
“It is and this is one of the toughest places to play in the conference,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “They have a nice team and they are scary simply because they’ve been so up and down. When they are up you can just see their confidence grow. (Cam) Kline played out of his mind tonight, he is so hard to keep in front and (Brady) Bechtel has been a load – it seems like – six years.”
Plymouth built their lead to 13 points early in the third quarter only to see Goshen fight back to within one early in the fourth quarter. Down the stretch it was the Pilgrims on the boards that were the difference, grabbing key rebounds time and again to seal the win.
“We said that before the game and we felt like that rebounding was going to be huge,” said Bales. “I watched some of the film from last year and they take so many jump shots off the dribble that there are a lot of opposite block rebounds. Last year they were the ones beating us to those rebounds. At the end we were able to keep our guy in front of us a little better and that helped us not have to help so much and be in better position to rebound.”
“Our kids deserve a lot of credit. They’ve worked really hard and we’ve had a great week of practice. They wanted this one to set themselves up for next week. They fought through a lot tonight. We knew we had to get this one. We stuck together and that’s part of going on the road and getting a big conference win.”
Plymouth is 14-4 and plays at Warsaw next Friday.
Score by quarters
Plymouth 19 35 45 65
Goshen 14 27 40 60
Plymouth (65) – Barron 1 1-2 4, Eveland 5 4-9 16, Carmichael 1 0-0 2, Felke 9 1-2 22, Anders 6 1-1 13, Friar 3 0-0 6, Davidson 0 0-0 0, Tharp 1 0-0 2. Totals 26 8-15 65.
Goshen (60) – Kline 2 1-2 5, Detweiler 4 2-3 10, Bechtel 9 2-2 25, Potter 2 0-0 4, Paetkau 1 2-2 4, Walters 1 0-0 2, Litwiler 0 0-0 0, Nafziger 4 0-0 9. Totals 23 7-9 60.
3 Pt. FG – Plymouth 5-10 (Felke 3), Goshen 7-16 (Bechtel 5).
Rebounds – Plymouth 20 (Anders 7), Goshen 19 (Potter 6).
Assists – Plymouth 13 (Felke 5), Goshen 8 (Kline, Detweiler, Walters 2).
Steals – Plymouth 4 (Barron, Eveland, Felke, Anders), Goshen 3 (Bechtel 2).
Turnovers – Plymouth 6, Goshen 6.
Fouls (Fouled Out) – Plymouth 13, Goshen 12.
JV Score – Plymouth 46, Goshen 44 in OT
