PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrims got in the win column for the first time this season on Thursday running past New Prairie by a 55-38 final.
Plymouth had some less than highlight-reel moments but put it all together for an overwhelming finish to put away the Cougars.
“If you look at us we have a couple of kids with varsity experience in a back up role,” said Plymouth coach Dave Duncan. “We are still trying to figure out who we are. We’ve got kids that have been playing JV minutes and kids that have been with the starting group and we’re mixing kids around to find out where the offense comes.”
The Cougars led at the end of the first quarter when Eva Skye-Dodds hit a three at the buzzer to give them a 12-11 advantage.
New Prairie hung around for three quarters but the Lady Pilgrims simply overpowered them on both ends of the floor in the fourth scoring 18 and allowing just five points from the Cougars.
The offense was the question entering the new season and the answer to that question — on this night anyway — appears to be the entire squad. Nine different players scored for Duncan’s team with Lindsay Janus (14), Tallulah Gault (13), and Clare Sheedy (10) leading the way. Sheedy was a rebound shy of a double/double on the night.
“I really praised Lindsay (Janus) I thought she really took over the game late,” said Duncan. “She wanted the ball and made great decisions with it. It’s her team and she has to be the one to run it and make things go.”
The Plymouth mastery of the boards was astonishing as they grabbed 45 to just 16 for New Prairie. Taylor Delp led that assault with 11 rebounds. Sheedy had nine rebounds and Gault eight.
“Against Washington, that was a plus for us too,” said Duncan. “Our kids are doing that really well. It’s something that we’re emphasizing and we are getting bodies on people for the most part and we just go after it.”
Some defensive breakdowns in the first half led to some easy baskets for New Prairie, but that end of the floor shored up in the second half.
“The communication on the defensive end — we are so far behind because of our experience,” said Duncan. “This year is going to be a year where we will do a lot of reps for 30 to 40 minutes of practice just because you don’t have that repetition and our kids get lost from time to time and we are trying to figure that out right now.”
“We just have some kids that need to grow up and it takes varsity minutes to do that.”
“I think there are a lot of pieces out there, we just have to put them together,” said Duncan. “The kids are going to have to understand their roles. In the past, we’ve identified roles pretty clearly but we didn’t have a summer to work that out. There are still some questions on ‘What am I supposed to do?’ and in a couple of games, we ought to have that figured out.”
Plymouth (1-1) is back in action on Tuesday at home against Mishawaka Marian.
•PLYMOUTH 55, NEW PRAIRIE 38
at Plymouth
Plymouth 11 27 37 55
New Prairie 12 23 33 38
Plymouth (55) — Cook 2 0-0 4, Hunter 1 1-2 3, Janus 5 2-4 14, Delp 2 0-2 4, M. Mann 0 0-0 0, Dragani 1 2-2 5, Gault 5 0-0 13, DeJarnett 1 0-0 2, R. Mann 0 0-0 0, Ellie Jones 0 1-2 1, Sheedy 3 4-4 10. Totals 20 10-16 55.
New Prairie (38) — Skye-Dodds 3 0-0 7, Flagg 4 3-3 12, Deutscher 0 0-0 0, Pavlik 0 2-2 2, Ja. Winter 0 0-0 0, Jo. Winters 1 1-1 3, White 7 1-2 16. Totals 15 7-8 38.
3pt. FG — Plymouth 6 (Gault 3), NP 3 (Skye-Dodds, Flagg, White).
Rebounds — Plymouth 45 (Delp 11), NP 16 (Jo. Winters 6).
Assists — Plymouth 7 (Janus 6), NP 2 (Skye-Dodds, Flagg).
Steals — Plymouth 2 (Janus), NP 7 (Jo. Winters 3).
Turnovers — Plymouth 15, NP 10.
Fouls (Fouled out) — Plymouth 11, NP 14 (Pavlik).
