PLYMOUTH — When it rains it pours and it was a monsoon of three-point baskets that spelled the undoing of Plymouth as they fell to Northridge by a 73-33 final.
“They came out and set a great tone when they shoot the lights out like that it’s tough to stop them once they get that train rolling,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “It shows their level of play. They could be a semi-state level team at the very least. They can go inside and outside.”
“I think our kids wanted it,” said Bales. “There wasn’t a lack of effort. We just needed to take care of some little things.”
The Raiders set a tone indeed as they buried nearly every shot they attempted from behind the three-point arc in the first quarter, hitting on seven in the first quarter alone and scored 21 of their 25 first-quarter points on three’s.
Northridge would go on to bury 15 on the night where it seemed they could do little wrong shooting the basketball.
It was a night that started on a sour note before it even began for Plymouth as they lost leading scorer and team captain Jake Reichard to an ankle injury suffered in practice on Wednesday. A game-time decision Reichard was unable to go on Friday night.
“We struggled to get the ball to the basket and that’s something that Jake can bring,” said Bales. “For example (Carter) Stoltfus for them can allow the defense to collapse on him and kick out to the shooters. That’s Jake for us. Does he make a difference? Yeah. Does he make a 40 point difference? I don’t know but I’d certainly take my chances with him.”
Stoltfus had nine points on three’s but more importantly, had nine assists on the night.
In addition to red hot shooting the veteran Raiders used their pressure defense to perfection, and while the Pilgrims didn’t have an abundance of turnovers, they looked out of sync on the offensive end for the entire night.
“We knew that we were short-handed tonight and that’s a big loss for us,” said Bales. “We have to handle the basketball and do some little things. I don’t know if we even play our best tonight I’m not sure we are within 20 the way they played tonight.”
While Raider postman Alex Stauffer was held relatively in check in the scoring column he did provide seven rebounds in the first half and three assists.
“They’ve had 30 three’s in their last two games. They were 15 out of 33 in their last game,” said Bales. “We thought we had a plan coming in to go after the Stauffer kid inside because he is such a load and he may not have hurt us that much scoring but he made some great passes. They pass the ball really well and they have five guys who can score it, that becomes very difficult to defend.”
Northridge stays unbeaten in NLC play and moves to 11-5 on the year while Plymouth moves to 3-2 and 6-10 on the season.
•NORTHRIDGE 73, PLYMOUTH 33
At Plymouth
Plymouth (33) — Hunter 3 2-2 9, Weidner 0 0-0 0, Styers 1 0-0 2, Yoder 1 0-0 2, Hissong 3 0-0 7, Feece 1 0-0 2, Houin 0 0-0 0, Strain 5 0-0 11, Wray 0 0-0 0, Bales 0 0-0 0, Mills 0 0-0 0, Lark 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 2-2 33.
Northridge (73) — Brown 3 0-0 8, Ca. Stoltfus 3 0-0 9, Gaylor 0 0-0 0, Knepp 6 0-0 16, Smith 6 2-2 17, Jacobs 2 0-0 4, Miller 1 0-0 3, Zmuda 0 0-0 0, Hochstetler 1 0-0 2, Stauffer 4 0-0 9, Cl. Stoltfus 2 0-0 5. Totals 28 2-2 73.
