Pilgrims fall in midweek contest at Elkhart
Story courtesy of The Pilot News
ELKHART — Northside Gym is one of the “shrines” of Indiana High School basketball and one that was very unkind to Plymouth as Elkhart took their first win of the season over the Pilgrims 66-58.
Plymouth had a solid start running out to a seven-point lead and holding onto that at the quarter break 18-11
Trent Van Duyne with six points and a couple of big threes, one from Preston Wolfe and the other from Dan Nguyen helped the Pilgrims in the opening eight minutes.
Elkhart came out and forced the issue in the second holding Plymouth coming out and grabbing the lead for the first time in the game at the 5:27 mark and from there it was back and forth one nearly every possession with 14 lead changes in the quarter and Elkhart holding on to a one-point advantage at the break.
The third quarter was where the damage was done as the Lions held Plymouth to just two points for nearly five minutes of the frame. They were still only able to stretch the lead to six and by the break Plymouth was back within two at 48-46.
Trading buckets for the beginning of the fourth the teams again traded the lead with every possession but Elkhart was able to stretch the lead to five with three minutes to play and would never trail again in taking the win.
Elkhart’s Javeis Hines was a one-man wrecking crew scoring 14 of his 22 points in the final eight minutes.
The Pilgrims struggled with the wall-to-wall Elkhart defense that was able to speed the Pilgrims up and force a more full-court game than Plymouth was comfortable with.
Plymouth’s Kadyn Ellery was able to beat the double teams down low to hit 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Coby Walters had 21 points on the night to lead the Pilgrims.
“Tonight was a tough one,” said Plymouth coach Joel Grindle. “We know we are capable of better things and we will get back to getting better tomorrow.”
Plymouth moves to 6-8 overall and will be in NLC action on Friday at home against Northridge.
•ELKHART 66, PLYMOUTH 53
At Northside Gym
Plymouth 18 32 46 58
Elkhart 11 33 48 66
Plymouth (58) — Bowling 1 0-0 3, Delp 1 0-0 2, Ellery 6 2-4 14, Lewandowski 0 0-0 0, Nguyen 1 0-0 3, Van Duyne 2 4-6 8, Walters 10 0-0 21, Wolfe 3 0-1 8. totals 24 6-11 58.
Elkhart (66) — Axell 0 0-0 0, Bloch 2 0-0 5, Cochrane 0 0-0 0, Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Hardin 2 0-0 4, Harris 2 4-4 8, Hines 9 2-4 22, Morris 6 0-2 12, Thomas 1 0-0 3, Willis 5 2-4 12. Totals 27 8-14 66.
3 Pt. FG — Plymouth 4-19 (Wolfe 2), Elkhart 4-10 (Hines 2).
Rebounds — Plymouth 25 (Ellery 7), Elkhart 31 (Cochrane, Morris 5).
Assists — Plymouth 12 (Wolfe 4), Elkhart 14 (Harris 3).
Steals — Plymouth 6 (Van Duyne, Wolfe 2), Elkhart 6 (Morris 3).
Turnovers — Plymouth 12, Elkhart 14.
