PLYMOUTH — It was the second double overtime in the last three games for Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrims with the same outcome as they fell at home to Chesterton by a 58-51 final.
Fighting back from a 16 point deficit the Lady Pilgrims had possession with time running out in regulation when Claire Tanner caught a pass from Lindsay Janus in the left corner and drained what appeared to be a game-winning three. Unfortunately, the official saw a travel and waved off the dramatic closer.
“As poorly as we played we still had a knockdown shot in the corner that might have been a missed call,” said Plymouth head coach Dave Duncan. “You can’t put yourself in a position to let that official make a decision on the floor. ”
“We put ourselves in the situation to win and I guess that’s all you can do is play it out and see how it goes for you.”
Plymouth had a very uncharacteristic first half struggling to figure out an approach to the Trojans 1-2-2 trap. Chesterton forced 30 turnovers from Plymouth on the night. In the first half that was clearly the difference in the game.
Plymouth came out of the locker room at half trailing by 10 and watched the lead ballon early to as many as 16 early in the third period but then things began to turn around.
“We were down 16 and we cleared the bench and I thought our backup kids played well,” said Duncan. “We gained about four points at that point. It was just a matter of us playing hard, a lot of grit on the floor. I was really proud of our kids and the way they fought back.”
From the middle of the third quarter on it was a different look for the Lady Pilgrims as they forced Chesterton into 11 second-half turnovers and poor shot selection at key moments to claw back to within six at the quarter break.
“Tonight it was more about us than Chesterton,” said Duncan. “We talked about our passing and how slow it was and about how many times the ball got deflected because of our lazy passes.”
“I was kind of disappointed with the speed of the pass and coming to the pass and shorten it the way we’re supposed to,” said Duncan. “It’s not like we don’t talk about it, we do but when you get tired you don’t think of it. It’s something that we can correct and we will.”
With more crisp passes to specific spots, the Lady Pilgrims were able to take the lead with three minutes to play and were in position to win in both regulation and again in overtime when a lot of contact under the basket disturbed a couple of Plymouth attempts at the buzzer.
In the second overtime, some key defensive stops made the difference for Chesterton and with Plymouth forced to foul they were able to gap the game at the end.
“I was proud of our kids for hanging in there,” said Duncan. “We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Plymouth is now 6-4 and will have a very important NLC game at home on Saturday night against Warsaw.
•CHESTERTON 58, PLYMOUTH 51
at Plymouth
Plymouth 6 13 34 44 47 51
Chesterton 10 23 40 44 47 58
Plymouth (51) — Tanner 4 0-0 12, Hunter 1 0-0 2, Janus 5 1-2 15, Flynn 1 0-0 2, Sheedy 1 3-4 5, Clady 2 2-3 6, Weir 3 1-1 7, Delp 0 2-2 2. Totals 17 9-12 51.
Chesterton (58) — Craycraft 6 0-0 14, Malackowski 2 4-6 10, Balas 6 8-13 20, Schmidt 5 3-5 13, Carr 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 16-25 58.
3 pt. FG — Plymouth 8 (Tanner, Janus 4), Chesterton 4 (Craycraft, Malackowski 2).
Rebounds — Plymouth 25 (Flynn 6), Chesterton 21 (Balas 8).
Assists — Plymouth 10 (Janus, Flynn 4), Chesterton 8 (Malackowski 4).
Steals — Plymouth 12 (Weir 4), Chesterton 15 (Schmidt 5).
Turnovers — Plymouth 30, Chesterton 21.
