Plymouth Basketball prepares for Post-Season
By John Scott, PHS Asst. A.D.,
403 Indiana High School Basketball teams will all start their journey toward a championship this week in high school boy’s basketball around the State of Indiana. The 108th Annual IHSAA Boy’s Basketball tournament will begin. Some schools will have their bubble burst as early as Tuesday this week but others teams will continue their journey for a state championship over the next four weeks as the finals are scheduled for Saturday, 3/24/18 at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The current #1 teams in each class include Warren Central in Class 4A, the New Castle Trojans in Class 3A, Covington in Class 2A, and finally University High School in Class 1A. Marion High School and Muncie Central High School have won the most State Championships over the last 108 years. They each have eight championships.
The Plymouth Pilgrims will be participating for the first time ever in Class 4A Sectional #4 at Elkhart Northside Gym. The Pilgrims have participated many times at Northside Gym in tournament play but never the sectional. From 1957-1984, the Pilgrims played in the IHSAA Elkhart Regional 14 times. The Pilgrims won the Regional at Northside Gym five times including 1970, 1973, 1977, 1982, and 1983.
They will be shooting for their first sectional championship ever at Elkhart Wednesday night as the Pilgrims take on Elkhart Memorial for the second time this year at Northside Gym. The Pilgrims fell to the Crimson Chargers 53-47 back on 1/5/18.
Elkhart Memorial finished the year at 4-3 in the NLC and 10-12 overall. The Pilgrims also finished 4-3 in the NLC and 13-9 overall. Those 13 wins top the field at Elkhart as the next closest school (Northridge) had 12 wins during the year. The Pilgrims and Elkhart Memorial have 12 common opponents on their schedules. Elkhart Memorial went 5-7 against those opponents while the Pilgrims went 7-5.
A pair of juniors lead Elkhart Memorial in scoring this year. Trey Gallope 14.1 PPG and Hank Smith, 12.6 PPG, have been the top gunners for the Crimson Chargers. Senior Jose Soto and Iyan Jennings are each hitting for 7.3 and 6.6 PPG respectively.
The Pilgrims are being lead by junior Clay Hilliard at 17.8 PPG while senior Kadin McCrammer is hitting for 10 PPG and is also pulling down 5.4 RPG. Senior Garrett Tharp is hitting for 8.4 PPG while pulling down 5.2 RPG.
The rest of the Sectional #4 draw looks like this:
Tuesday, 2/27/18: Goshen vs Warsaw 7:00
Wednesday, 2/28/18: Elkhart Memorial vs Plymouth 6:00
Elkhart Central vs Concord 7:45
Friday, 3/2/18: Northridge vs Game 1 winner 6:00
Game 2 winner vs Game 3 winner 7:45
Saturday, 3/3/18: Game 4 winner vs Game 5 winner 7:00
