File photo by Rudy Marquez
PLYMOUTH — A sluggish start led to an almost perfect finish as Plymouth’s Lady Pilgrims got in the win column at home against Elkhart Memorial by a 60-22 final.
The first quarter would have little resemblance to the rest of the day as Plymouth got off the block with a sloppy first few minutes that saw them fall behind and ended the quarter in a tie at seven.
“When we had the reserves in at the end of the game I told our girls that other than the first four minutes of the game we played some really good basketball,” said Plymouth coach Dave Duncan. “The ball movement was good on the offensive end and we played better on the defensive end.”
It certainly didn’t start that way with senior guard Claire Tanner on the bench at the beginning with some nagging injury issues. Tanner came off the bench late in the first quarter and completely changed the game in the second.
“When Claire gets on the floor with her basketball IQ she can get people where they need to be on the floor,” said Duncan. “We were a different team today when she was on the floor. Things changed on both ends of the floor for us.”
In the second quarter alone Tanner had three 3’s, grabbed a pair of rebounds with a steal and dished out three assists. She ended the day within reach of a triple-double with 20 points seven rebounds, seven assists, and three steals.
The Lady Pilgrims made a concentrated effort to feed the post as well and the beneficiary of that emphasis was Alaina Clady who ended the day with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Her kick out passes also set up a lot of good scoring opportunities on the perimeter for Tanner and Lindsay Janus.
“We had a lot of inside-out looks today,” said Duncan. “We kick it in and then kick it back out to our shooters with their feet set and they shot the ball very well.”
The defense also took the middle away from Memorial’s outstanding sophomore Demour Watson, who grabbed 10 rebounds but could manage just five points.
“I thought we made her very uncomfortable in her shots,” said Duncan. “We gave up some transitions in the first half and we made some adjustments to stop that too.”
Those adjustments led to a 22-8 second-quarter run and Plymouth never looked back.
The Lady Pilgrims have a game with LaPorte at home on Tuesday and then travel to Concord for a key NLC matchup on Saturday.
“We’ve talked about getting on a run here,” said Duncan. “We haven’t really had that all year. With the game at Brebeuf and then with this game here today we want to get a little bit of a run going in January.”
Plymouth is now 9-7 on the year.
•PLYMOUTH 60, ELKHART MEMORIAL 22
At Plymouth
Plymouth 7 29 50 60
Elk. Mem. 7 15 19 22
Plymouth (60) — Tanner 6 2-2 20, Hunter 0 0-0 0, Janus 3 0-0 9, Cook 0 0-0 0, Flynn 2 2-2 6, Gault 0 0-0 0, Dejarnett 0 0-0 0, Sheedy 2 0-2 4, Clady 6 3-5 15, Weir 2 0-0 2, Delp 0 2-2 2. Totals 21 9-13 60.
Elk. Mem. (22) — Rohm 1 0-0 2, Reeves 4 0-0 9, Weidner 0 1-2 1, Watson 2 1-1 5, Watson 2 1-1 5, Axsom 1 1-2 3, Goldborou 1 1-2 5. Totals 9 4-7 22.
