WALKERTON – It was an unlikely source for overtime heroics for Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrims as they came away with an 47-46 overtime win over rival Glenn on the road.
Trailing by two in overtime, the clock running out, and both CeCe Robinson and Claire Tanner on the bench with five fouls, the Lady Pilgrims looked for a final shot. Two obvious choices were seniors Halle Reichard and Cassidy Holiday.
Each touched the ball on the possession but were well guarded. Reichard gave the ball up inside to Holiday, and instead of forcing a shot, Holiday gave it up to wide open sophomore Lindsay Janus on the left wing who calmly and cooly buried the game-winning three with four seconds on the clock.
“Halle is getting a lot of attention and she’s earned that over the years for how good she’s been,” said Plymouth coach Dave Duncan. “Lindsay Janus there with a big shot at the end. Cass got it in there and Lindsay was wide open on the outside and she kicked it to her. She’s played JV all year and she had the confidence to knock that shot down. That’s huge.”
“We are a team that lacks consistency,” said Glenn head coach Kyle Amor. “Once we play all four quarters we are going to turn the tide. Our kids fought back, they showed composure, they showed guts, eventually the ball is going to bounce our way.”
Plymouth had a 17-point lead in the third quarter that evaporated by the fourth and even more quickly after Claire Tanner left the floor with her fifth foul, a technical called after her fourth on a contested block at the basket.
“We keep telling our kids that we get a 17-point lead we have to make five or six passes before we take a shot,” said Duncan. “That run that Glenn had we made one or two passes and got a shot. If we want to extend leads we can’t do that.
“You come down you make one or two passes before you put a shot up and then you’re playing defense. We played defense more than we played offense tonight. I thought our 1-3-1 was solid, but we just have to get better.”
“We had a pretty interesting lineup in in the third quarter,” said Amor who had two players – Dessa Lang and Morgan Plunkett in foul trouble all night. “It was one of those games that other kids had to pick it up. Plymouth’s 1-3-1 took a lot away from us and they hit key shots at key times that’s what you have to do to win big games.”
Glenn took their first lead of the game at the 1:18 mark to play in regulation and almost put the game away at the line in overtime, but missed some key free throws down the stretch and that became the difference in the game.
“We were a little discombobulated on our side of the floor, but we had kids step up. We had kids hit free throws and that’s why we stayed in it,” said Amor. “This is something that we are going to get better from.”
Plymouth moves to 10-2 with a big conference game looming at NorthWood on Saturday night. Glenn is now 7-6 with a Friday night NIC conference date with Mishawaka Marian.
•PLYMOUTH 47, GLENN 46
at Walkerton
Plymouth 9 25 34 38 47
Glenn 8 11 23 38 46
Plymouth (47) – Tanner 4 2-2 12, Holiday 3 0-0 6, Peters 1 2-2 4, Reichard 1 4-4 6, Janus 1 0-0 3, Robinson 2 3-4 7, Clady 2 0-0 4, Weir 1 0-0 3. Totals 15 14-15 47
Glenn (46) – (Hayden 3 7-8 15, Plunkett 1 2-4 5, Machnic 2 0-0 5, Lang 2 6-6 11, R. Romer 1 0-1 2, Wilk 1 0-0 2, Lang 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 15-20 46.
3 pt. FG – Glenn 5 (Hayden 2), Plymouth 4 (Tanner 2).
Rebounds Plymouth 15 (Robinson 5), Glenn 15 (Hayden 4).
Assists – Plymouth 7 (Robinson 3), Glenn 5 (Hayden 3).
Steals – Plymouth 13 (Tanner 5), Glenn 9 (S. Lang 3).
Turnovers – Plymouth 17, Glenn 14.
Fouls (Fouled out) – Glenn 14 (Dessa Lange), Plymouth 19 (Tanner, Robinson).
