SOUTH BEND – A good start was no indication of the end as Plymouth’s Pilgrims dropped a 67-51 game at South Bend Adams.
The Pilgrims looked solid and in control for most of a quarter and a half, but the Eagles pushed the accelerator and used a 16-7 second quarter to jump out to an 8 point lead that would grow as high as 20 in the second half.
“I think in the second quarter our lack of offense led to offense for them and they were obviously able to extend the lead really quickly,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “I don’t feel like we got rattled overall for long stretches. With a team like that they only need a minute to put six or eight points on the board. They showed how explosive they can be.”
Not just offensively.
The Eagles defense held Plymouth’s scorers in check forcing Jake Reichard to an uncharacteristically poor night shooting at just 4 of 14 and while Clay Hilliard eventually got 19 points before the night was over, he had just four total shots in the first half
“Overall I thought we executed the game plan, just offensively we needed some better shots and that impacted our transition defense,” said Bales. “You have to give them a lot of credit, the Foster (Ben) had an unbelieveable night, he’s a very aggressive player. The Johnson kid (Shak) we expected to start but he comes off the bench and has 16 rebounds. In two years against us he has 34 rebounds.”
Foster had 31 points on the night for Adams and Johnson had 16 of Adams 37 rebounds six of those for him on the offensive glass. Plymouth had just 20 rebounds on the night.
“I think we played hard,” said Bales. “We could play smarter that’s for sure. We had a few shots that led to some break outs for them, and they are very good at causing that panic and chaos.”
“I thought we had a heckuva start, we played within ourselves, we had some great looks,” said Bales. “We missed a few finishes here and there was an and one that was pulled back by a charge call, just a lot of things like that that led to impacting us on the defensive end.”
Plymouth was able to pull the 20 point lead back to just four in the fourth quarter but a quick run put it right back at 10.
Plymouth is 3-1 on the year with a game Tuesday at Winamac.
*ADAMS 67, PLYMOUTH 51
at South Bend Adams
Plymouth 12 7 17 15 -51
Adams 11 16 22 18 – 67
Plymouth (51) – Hunter 0 0-0 0, Hilliard 6 4-4 19, Carmichael 0 0-0 0, Filson 5 2-2 12, Reichard 4 1-2 10, Tremaine 0 2-2 2, Dolan 2 0-0 4, Barron 0 0-0 0, Leazenby 2 0-0 4, Himes 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 9-10 51
Adams (67) – Foster 12 4-9 31, Worsham 4 0-0 8, King 3 0-0 6, Q. Columbus 3 4-4 11, Jefferies 2 0-0 4, Johnson 3 1-2 4, T. Columbus 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 9-15 67.
