PLYMOUTH — A promising night turned sour for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they fell to Mishawaka by a 58-50 score.

Things couldn’t have been better to open the game for Plymouth. Coming off a demoralizing loss on Friday, it appeared that loss would merely add incentive.
The Pilgrims jumped out to a big lead and pretty much had their way through 13 minutes of the first half leading as much as 20-4.
It appeared that Plymouth would take at least a 10 point lead to the locker room at the half with under a minute to play. The Cavemen had other ideas.
A flurry of full-court pressure forced four turnovers leading to just a six-point lead for Plymouth headed to the locker room. It would be more of the same in the third quarter.
“We had a lot of positives,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Bales. “But it was a night where our negatives had an exclamation point on them. They capitalized on every mistake whether it was an offensive board, whether it was a turnover — it’s hard to defend one on zero when they are going in for layups. We have to get tough with the basketball and in certain situations on the defensive end and buckle down for a stop.”
“It’s unfortunate that the last three minutes got away from us there,” he said. “We played some excellent basketball and controlled the tempo. Again I think that if we keep them in a half-court game we are talking about a different story.”
Instead, it was a story that has played itself out more than once as the Pilgrims struggled to solve the Mishawaka pressure out of the break would be their undoing.
“Obviously our inability to take care of the ball and get some rebounds in that stretch gave them a lot of momentum going into half time,” said Bales. “Third quarter kind of the same. We didn’t come to the ball hard and there are some things that we have to take care of.”
With Mishawaka’s athletic lineup employing an unorthodox approach of all players in the area running to trap the ball, they were able to overcome a very poor shooting night force 23 Plymouth turnovers and score 41 second-half points, most of them on layups.
“Unorthodox may turn to popular here soon,” said Bales. “We may see that next week and down the stretch. They play chaotic and that’s to their advantage. Again if you look at the first half it wasn’t chaotic, it was very solid. That’s when we are at our best. We let it get away from us and we did not have a great response in those moments. We hit the panic button at some key moments.”
Still, the Pilgrims didn’t go away cutting the lead back to just two in the last minute, but with Plymouth forced to foul for a chance at the ball, the Cavemen were able to stretch the lead back out at the end.
“We showed a lot of fight coming back and a lot of resiliency, that was great to see out of some kids,” said Bales. “It’s a tough one but another lesson.”
Plymouth falls to 6-11 and will take on NLC foe Goshen on Thursday night.
•MISHAWAKA 58, PLYMOUTH 50
At Plymouth
Plymouth 6 23 36 50
Mishawaka 2 17 41 58
Plymouth (50) — Hunter 5 6-7 19, Weidner 1 0-0 3, Yoder 2 0-1 4, Hissong 3 0-0 9, Houin 1 0-0 2, Strain 2 0-0 4, Wray 2 0-0 6. Totals 17 6-8 50.
Mishawaka (58) — Braiton 2 4-5 8, Franklin 6 0-0 12, Johnson 4 7-8 16, Yohe 4 1-3 9, Thomas 0 0-0 0, Hoopingarner 2 1-1 5, Boggs 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 13-19 58.
3 pt. FG — Plymouth 10 (Hunter, Hissong 3), Mishawaka 1 (Johnson).
Rebounds — Plymouth 17 (Hissong 7), Mishawaka 18 (Thomas 4).
Assists — Plymouth 6 (Houin 3), Mishawaka 3 (Johnson 2).
Steals — Plymouth 7 (Styers 2), Mishawaka 15 (Braiton 5).
Turnovers — Plymouth 23, Mishawaka 13.
Fouls (Fouled out) — Plymouth 15, Mishawaka 9.