PLYMOUTH – It was simply one of those nights for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they lost a game that they were never really in by a 56-35 score to visiting Huntington North.
Huntington came out astonishingly red hot hitting 85 percent from the field in the first half, including seven of eight from beyond the three point line. Almost before the Pilgrims got out of the locker room they were down 12-3.
“There aren’t too many answers right now,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “They were 12-14 (shooting) at the half, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that before. They shot it really well, and they’re already a really good ball club. When they are shooting that well, we just don’t have the offensive weapons, collectively to keep up with a team like that.”
“We missed some lay ups early on and some shoulder ins that we’ve got to do a better job finishing,” said Bales. “We had to find our defense, and obviously we didn’t do that. There’s not many answers right now except that we have to play with a sense of pride and we have to get some guys to step up defensively.”
Huntington (17-4) had a balanced scoring attack with the huge inside presence of Hank Pulver (14 points) and Sawyer Stoltz (13 points) as well as the outside scoring of Zach Daugherty (13 points) and caused match up problems for the Plymouth defense.
“They are a tough matchup with the inside-outside game they have,” said Bales. “They have the best balanced team we’ve played.”
Still the Pilgrims had opportunity in the second half. The Vikings were a lot more human shooting the ball and Plymouth was able to get turnovers and one and out shooting early on but could never take advantage of it to whittle away at the lead.
“We didn’t capitalize,” said Bales. “We had a few transition opportunities that we overthrew or they just went off peoples hands, but we really just couldn’t find our defense tonight. We almost need guys to play from the beginning like we’re 20 down, bring the ball pressure, bring the urgency, we need stops earlier in the game.”
“We’ve got some work to do before tomorrow night,” said Bales.
Clay Hilliard was able to reach the 1000 point milestone in the first half but for the second straight game was held in single digits with just nine points. Jake Reichard had 10 to lead the Pilgrims.
Another bit of bad news is Pilgrim Cole Filson going down in the first half with an ankle injury. He is day to day.
Plymouth (13-6) will have to rebound quickly as they face of with #5 ranked (4A) Penn at Plymouth tonight.
•HUNTINGTON 56, PLYMOUTH 35
at Plymouth
Huntington 20 14 10 12 – 56
Plymouth 6 7 10 12 – 35
Huntington – Bartrom 0 0-0 0, Newcomb 0 0-0 0, Pulver 5 3-3 14, Kaylor 1 0-0 3, Stoltz 6 1-2 13, Williams 3 0-0 8, Daugherty 4 2-2 13, Hollowell 2 1-2 5. Totals 21 7-10 56.
Plymouth (35) – Hunter 2 0-0 4, Hilliard 3 0-0 9, Filson 1 0-0 2, Reichard 3 3-4 10, Tremaine 2 0-0 6, Winkle 1 0-0 2, Himes 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 3-4 35.
3 pt FG – HN 7-12 (Daugherty 3), Plymouth 6-22 (Hilliard 3).
Rebounds – HN 24 (Stoltz 9), Plymouth 14 (Reichard 5).
Assists – HN 17 (Williams, Daugherty 5), Plymouth 11 (Carmichael, Tremaine, Barron 2).
Steals – HN 6 (Daugherty 3), Plymouth 5 (Tremaine 3).
Turnovers – HN 13, Plymouth 13.
Fouls (Fouled out) – HN 8, Plymouth 13.
