PLYMOUTH – For the first time since before Thanksgiving the Plymouth Lady Pilgrims found out what a home court advantage is and took full advantage of that to take a 48-40 win over Concord in an NLC match up.
“We had some stretches there where we didn’t play very good basketball,” said Plymouth coach Dave Duncan. “But we came out and had a great third quarter and tried to build the lead there late in the game but it is a really good win.”
In a back and forth game early, Concord was able to put enough offense together to stretch their lead to as much as eight points until Plymouth was able to get within three at half. Plymouth switched to a zone defense which seem to put some confusion in the Concord offense and exacerbate a common problem for Concord.
“We had a scouting report on them and they didn’t really seem to shoot the ball very well, and they came out there and hit four threes in a row during one stretch in the first half,” said Duncan. “You have to give them credit, they are well coached and talented and they are going to be just another team that’s going to be tough to contend with in the sectional.”
Shooting was the story of the game as the Minutemen missed shot after shot from point blank range and the Lady Pilgrims were able to clean up the boards.
“One of their best players (Alexa Porter) was out for the season with an ACL and that hurt them,” said Duncan. “That’s another piece of their game they were missing but I have to really hand it to CeCe (Robinson, who is playing through a broken nose suffered against LaPorte). It’s not easy to play with that mask on. It’s hard to see. She made some big plays for us.”
Robinson had six of eight from the free throw line for her points and added four rebounds. Cassidy Holiday added 14 with four more, 11 of those points in the second half, and Halle Reichard had 16 with some crucial three’s down the stretch.
Some solid minutes from the bench once again cemented the win.
“Claire (Tanner) got in some foul trouble there and so did Holiday,” said Duncan. “Lindsay Janus came off the bench and gave us some great minutes, I though (Alaina) Clady had a monster game today, she went up strong and got us some great rebounds. That’s what you need is kids that are going to come in and give you a spark like that.”
“Rebounding is something that we’ve been working on and we’re getting better,” said Duncan. “We have just a few games left we just want to be the best team that we can be going into the sectional.”
Plymouth moves to 13-5 on the season while Concord falls to 11-7. The Lady Pilgrims are back in action on Tuesday night, at home once again, to take on Winamac.
•PLYMOUTH 48, CONCORD 43
at Plymouth
Plymouth 9 20 37 48
Concord 14 23 31 43
Plymouth (48) – Tanner 1 1-1 3, Holiday 7 1-1 15, Peters 1 0-0 3, Hale Reichard 4 4-4 16, Robinson 0 6-8 8, Clady 1 1-1 3, Janus 0 3-4 3. Totals 15 16-19 48.
Concord (43) – Williams 2 0-0 4, Redmond 1 0-0 2, Simon 2 0-1 5, Pfeil 2 1-1 5, Swartout 3 0-0 7, Gratzol 7 2-3 19. Totals 11 3-4 43.
