Tough, important weekend coming up for Pilgrims

Story courtesy of The Pilot News

PLYMOUTH — It will be the first long weekend of the season for Plymouth’s Pilgrims and they will hit the road for two very tough games, one an NLC contest at Mishawaka and the other to a very tough gym to win at Tippecanoe Valley.

It’s a weekend that could be a harbinger of things to come in March, during sectional time. It’s also a chance for the Pilgrims to build on an exciting 1st Source Bank Holiday Classic title
“We got a couple wins for our team that were much needed,” said Plymouth head coach Joel Grindle. “The way that Lewis Cass game played out, coming back, that really kind of helped make Christmas a little better and helped heading into the tough weekend we have coming up.”
Every team has a moment that is a turning point in the season and Grindle is cautiously optimistic.
“You hope it’s that kind of a game,” said Grindle. “To say I was proud of what happened is an understatement. I told the guys we got ourselves in all kinds of trouble. We had a lot of stuff going on. We had injuries, we had foul trouble, but it’s amazing what some effort and energy will do.”
“At one point I think we were down 16 or 18 and to come back and have a half where we outscore them 26-6 and be going away at the end,” said Grindle. “It shows that no matter what the score is no matter where we’re at we can always come back and when our kids play like that they are fun to watch and hard to beat.”
It was a tense moment when Kadyn Ellery went down with an ankle injury in the second half of the day’s first game against Knox, but it was also a day for the Plymouth bench to show that they have grown.
“Both games we battled foul trouble, we dealt with Kadyn Ellery being injured, we had different guys step up at different times,” said Grindle. “Parker Wolfe and Kaden Milliser stepped up and played big minutes when we needed them. Caleb Bowling had a fantastic game against Knox when he was called upon. Trey Delp and Ryan Tremaine have been giving us great minutes. That’s what you want. You are looking for kids that have opportunities to step up and take them.”
Being on the road again in NLC action is tough, but against a Mishawaka team that has had the Pilgrims number for the past few meetings is a little tougher.
“They are defending sectional champs and to say they hung one on us in the sectional last year would be an understatement,” said Grindle. “That game is one that forced us to look in the mirror and change a lot of things in our program.”
“We are anxious to see what we are at against them because they return a lot of the same guys,” he said. “They’ve got guys that we’ve seen before multiple times. We are going to have to go up to ‘the Cave’ and really bring it. This is one of the teams that people think can win the conference and one of the favorites in our sectional. We are going to have to play really good basketball against a really good basketball team.”
“We are certainly going to have to match their physicality, we are going to have to match their effort and their intensity.”
Saturday night is no easier as the Pilgrims will head to Tippecanoe Valley to take on a deep Viking team.
“They (Mishawaka and Valley) are kind of carbon copies of each other. They are both big and strong and physical and both tough places to play on the road. Valley has guys galore, they’ve done a good job of building depth in their program. We’ve got our hands full this weekend.”
“This is the type of weekend that gets you ready for a Friday, Saturday sectional if you are lucky enough to get there.”