WARSAW — Plymouth’s Pilgrims avoided the disastrous first quarter that has plagued them the past several weeks but couldn’t climb out of an early deficit and fell by a 49-36 final at Warsaw.
Falling behind by 12 at the half, the Pilgrims cut that deficit in half in the third quarter only to see the Tigers match their run and keep them at arm’s length for the entire contest.
Plymouth was able to get the looks they wanted on the offensive end but simply couldn’t make them fall.
“(Adam) Hunter and (Easton) Strain got the shots that we want them taking,” said Bales. “Overall we executed very well, the shot volume is great. We got them (Warsaw) in the double bonus early and that helped us chip away with the clock stopped. We are searching for answers and honestly, the ball has to go in the basket. That has to happen for us. We didn’t get that at the right time and we didn’t get the stops at the right time either.”
Plymouth fell behind in the first quarter but stayed within striking distance throughout the first half. In the third quarter, the Pilgrims came out and cut the Tiger lead to just six halfway through the quarter but Warsaw answered with a pair of threes on consecutive possessions to bring it back to 12.
“We did an awesome job of coming back and showing a fight and putting ourselves in position,” said Bales. “We felt like we were there and even at halftime felt like we were in this game. We were out of several at that point in the last couple of weeks.”
“Everybody that played contributed,” he said. “Everybody came in and competed well. Just not enough shots went in for us tonight.”
Once again down numbers on the bench, Plymouth got big contributions up and down the roster with youngsters Tanner Feece and Skyler Aker coming on for solid nights along with veteran Grant Houin.
“We need spark plugs off the bench and I think tonight our bench gave us that,” said Bales. We got in some foul trouble tonight and we had to plug certain people in in certain situations and they responded. (Skyler) Aker and (Tanner) Feece are guys who’ve been on our radar, and they continue to show up and work hard every day. Give them the credit they show up and work hard every day.”
The very young Pilgrims continue to grow and in particular freshman point guard, Davis Wray had a solid night against a very stout Warsaw defense.
“Davis played 31 minutes tonight with no turnovers and that’s a heckuva night against a Warsaw defense that’s very scrappy,” said Bales. “He stayed very composed and that’s not easy for a freshman.”
“It was the other guys around too,” he said. “It was a team effort. The composure was there because everybody was a little more solid tonight.”
Plymouth is now 6-14 on the year and will have a Tuesday night match up with Penn next week. Warsaw moves to 11-6.
•WARSAW 49, PLYMOUTH 36
At Warsaw
Plymouth 9 14 27 36
Warsaw 14 26 37 49
Plymouth (36) — Hunter 3 4-4 12, Styers 1 0-0 2, Yoder 1 0-1 2, Feece 0 3-4 3, Houin 0 0-0 0, Strain 3 3-4 11, Wray 2 2-2 6, Aker 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 12-15 36.
Warsaw (49) — Larsh 0 0-1 0, Marsh 5 1-1 13, Adamiec 5 0-0 10, Amiss 3 0-0 9, Coon 4 2-2 10, Poe 1 2-2 4, Bergen 1 0-0 2, Simfukwe 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 6-8 49.
