PLYMOUTH – From the way it started there could be no way to guess that Plymouth would run away from Triton by a 61-28 final.
The Trojans came out with an intensity that had Plymouth back on their heels and struggling to stay in the game. Triton had a 10-4 lead at one point in the first quarter and it looked like a dog fight to the end.
Suddenly Triton shooters went ice cold and that coupled with the Pilgrims physical play simply wore the Trojans down.
“That’s the difference between the first quarter and the rest of the quarters,” said Triton coach Jason Groves. “Part of that was their physicality. We are not in the kind of shape we need to be right now and that kind of exposes things sometimes.
“Our effort and energy was great coming out,” said Groves. “They just dominated us physically. And we aren’t the biggest, strongest group in the world but all that means is you have to be more fundamental, you have to do the little things even more and do it for an extended period of time.”
“It was big from the standpoint that we weathered the storm,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “Triton really attacked us from the start, and we had a great response. You have to give them the credit they run some different action that you don’t see every day and it had us back on our heels.”
One thing the Trojan defense did was take away Clay Hilliard for most of the evening as a scorer. Using a combination of Quentin Amsden and Jared Bules Triton had a defender literally wearing the same uniform as the Plymouth guard wherever he went on the floor. They were able to hold him to just eight points and an uncharacteristic two of 12 shooting on the night.
“They played great defense and it’s not going to be uncommon for other teams to do that,” said Bales. “I thought Clay’s second half was so much more in control. We talked about if you deflate them with passes it can mean more than shots. When you’re driving and kicking to the open shooter. We have to get better and quicker at that overall as a team. When we play like that as a team like we did for the last two quarters you saw some great production from a lot of guys.”
“We had some guys step up tonight in roles maybe we haven’t seen this year,” said Bales. “I thought Joe Barron was a difference maker tonight. Brayson (Leazenby) has been really solid for us the first couple of games and he got in some foul trouble and Kendall (Himes) came in and gave us some physical play inside.”
“The sign of a great team is when our young guys step up and Cole (Filson) talked about it in the locker room tonight. Our young guys really stepped up and played well enough to get us a win.”
While the Trojans were able to shoot only 8 of 34 from the field for the night, Plymouth got great nights from Adam Hunter with eight points, Jake Reichard with a second straight 18 point night as part of a double/double with 10 rebounds. Barron and Tim Tremaine had solid floor games and Kendall Himes had six points.
“He had a look in his eye for awhile,” said Bales of Reichard’s play. “You could see it on rebounds and loose balls that he was going to be that guy that was going to be relentless in going after it. He still has a way to go but you can never fault his effort or his aggressiveness.”
Meanwhile the Trojans never stopped pushing the issue but could never gain any ground shooting only 23 percent from the floor.
“That’s kind of where we are right now,” said Groves. “We are good in stretches but we lose focus sometimes in extended stretches so we have to get better at that as a team.”
“Plymouth and (upcoming opponent) NorthWood are going to expose our weaknesses,” said Groves. “We use that and we will get better. These kids are good kids. They are going to keep fighting, they are going to keep getting better. We have to do that. And I believe we will.”
Plymouth (3-0) hits the road to South Bend Adams Friday, Triton (1-1) will be on the road at NorthWood.
*PLYMOUTH 61, TRITON 28
at Plymouth
Triton 12 4 4 8 – 28
Plymouth 13 15 12 21 – 61
Triton (61) – Butler 0 0-0 0, Yates 0 0-0 0, Orsund 2 2-3 6, Bules 0 0-0 0,. Hepler 3 0-0 7, Oviedo 2 0-0 6, Kreft 0 0-2 0, Atkins 0 0-0 0, Amsden 1 3-4 6, Richman 0 1-4 1, Westafer 0 2-2 2. Totals 8 8-15 28.
Plymouth (61) – Hunter 3 2-2 8, Hilliard 2 3-4 8, Carmichael 1 0-0 2, Filson 5 3-3 13, Reichard 6 4-4 18, Tremaine 1 0-0 2, Dolan 0 1-2 1, Barron 1 0-0 3, Leazenby 0 0-0 0, Styers 0 0-0 0, Himes 3 0-1 6. Totals 22 13-17 61.
3 Pt. FG – Triton 4-20 (Oviedo 2), Plymouth 4-19 (Reichard 2).
Rebounds – Triton 25 (Orsund 5), Plymouth 37 (Reichard 10).
Assists – Triton 5 (Richman 3), Plymouth 11 (Hilliard 3).
Steals – Triton 6 (Hepler 3), Plymouth 9 (Hunter, Reichard, Dolan 2).
Turnovers – Triton 19, Plymouth 10.
Fouls (Fouled out) – Triton 20, Plymouth 20.
