SOUTH BEND — It was another red hot shooting team and in particular, one red hot player as South Bend St. Joe took a 66-56 win over Plymouth at St. Joe Tuesday.
The Pilgrims went in at halftime trailing just 28-24 out of the break the Indians JR Konieczny went off for 16 points and St. Joe stretched its lead to 51-38 and would never trail again.
“He stepped up for them in a key moment and they kept going to him again and again and again and that’s good coaching to keep going to the kid with the hot hand,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “He’s a load and a tough kid to stop and he’s a load because he can go down and post and jump out and shoot the three, and drive the ball. In the third quarter he really put it on us.”
Konieczny ended the night with 34 points and five rebounds for St. Joe.
Outsized underneath for a third straight game the Plymouth defense held its own against a much taller St. Joe team.
“I think we did a lot better job competing in the post tonight,” said Bales of the effort of his guys underneath. “I think they had to work a lot harder down there tonight.”
“Right now it’s just an awareness of who has a hot hand, being aware of who that is and get him out of his rhythm some how,” said Bales. “We have to look at things we have to do better, who’s guarding him, our game plan. He (Konieczny) was just way too comfortable.”
While Konieczny carried the load for St. Joe, Plymouth had four players in double figures, Clay Hilliard hitting for 17, Cole Filson for 11, Jake Reichard for 12 with seven assists and Kendall Himes with 10.
“Offense right now isn’t out issue,” said Bales. “We had 20 assists tonight, made some really good passes, overall we took pretty good shots.”
“Kendall had one of his better games tonight,” he said. “He put himself in good positions and did a good job finishing. I thought he did a good job screening tonight.”
“Jake did a great job facilitating for others,” said Bales. “We put him at the top of that zone offense and he did a pretty good job.”
Plymouth is now 13-8 and ends its season Thursday night at home against Goshen. St. Joe is now 11-9.
•ST. JOE 66, PLYMOUTH 56
at St. Joe
Plymouth 8 16 17 15 – 56
St. Joe 13 15 23 15 – 66
Plymouth (56) – Hunter 1 0-0 3, Hilliard 5 2-2 17, Filson 4 3-6 11, Reichard 4 3-5 12, Dolan 1 1-2 3, Himes 5 0-0 10. Totals 20 9-15 56.
St. Joe (66) – Robles 1 0-0 3, Ratigan 3 1-2 9, Konieczny 10 10-12 34, O’Dell 2 1-2 6, Futa 2 2-2 7, Mossey 3 1-1 7. Totals 21 15-19 66.
3 pt. FG – Plymouth 7-21 (Hilliard 5), St. Joe 9-12 (Konieczny 4).
Rebounds – Plymouth 21 (Reichard 5), St. Joe (Futa 6).
Assists – Plymouth 20 (Reichard 7), St. Joe 14 (Raster 4).
Steals – Plymouth 6 (Hilliard 3), St. Joe 9 (Raster, Konieczny 3).
Turnovers – Plymouth 13, St. Joe 13.
Fouls (Fouled out) – Plymouth 16, St. Joe 10.
