Plymouth Girls Doomed at the Line
By Ken Peterson
Pilot Sports
PLYMOUTH � Solid man-to-man defense from Valparaiso and Plymouth's inability to make its free throws proved too much for the Pilgrims to overcome Saturday afternoon at Plymouth High School.
Coach Greg Kirby's Vikings used a solid halfcourt game on offense and defense to post a 48-38 non-conference victory.
Valparaiso improves to 2-3 on the season while coach Dave Cox's Plymouth squad falls to 4-1. The Pilgrims had a tough time establishing an offensive rhythm against the Vikings. Valparaiso played a very tough, in-your-face defense and limited Plymouth to just 28 shots.
"We missed some free throws," Cox said. "Early on, we made some turnovers that got the game to six to eight points in their favor. Even late in the game, we had four attempts and made one of them."
The Pilgrims struggle at the free-throw line were the opposite for the Vikings. With every Valparaiso player using the same free-throw shooting technique, the Vikings finished 2-of-14 from the field. Cassie Kerns, a 6-3 sophomore, led the winners with 14 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots. Fellow 6-2 sophomore Lindsay Humes had seven points, four rebounds and two blocked shots. Sarah Craig led the Pilgrims with 14 points, three steals and two rebounds. Morgan Uceny had 11 points and four steals.
Plymouth held its own on the boards against a taller Valparaiso squad. TheVikings won the rebound battle 21-15.
"We lost that battle a little bit, but not too bad," Cox said. "We talked about three areas -- we had to break even on the boards, have less errors (18 Plymouth turnovers to Valpo's 13) and we got to hit our free throws. We're going to struggle until we hit free throws."
Uceny's 3-pointer early in the first quarter gave Plymouth its only lead of the day, 3-2. From there, Valparaiso took over.
The Vikings led 15-7 at the end of the first quarter and led 20-13 after two Cassie Gantz free throws with 3:52 left in the half. Valparaiso led 25-17 at halftime as Plymouth attempted just 12 first half shots.
Things continued to get bleak for the Pilgrims as the Vikings extended the lead to 37-23 with 7:23 to go. A Shannon Gehrke basket and a 3-pointer from Uceny cut the Vikings lead to 39-30 and forced Kirby to call timeout.
Two free throws from Austen Black cut the margin to 41-34 with 2:16 to play, but Valparaiso clinched the game at the free-throw line, scoring its final six points from the charity stripe.
"We battled," Cox said. "This is a good ballclub. This is the best team that we've this year. They're a (Class) 4-A school that plays in the Duneland (Conference) and they go far in the tourney every year. We like to have a different result, but they teach you a lot."
The future of the series looks positive. With the Duneland Conference going to a double round-robin format in conference play next season, schools in the conference have to make decisions regarding non-conference opponents.
And the outlook is positive for these two teams meeting in future years.
"They asked us to stay," Cox said. "They didn't want to drop us. We're going to keep playing."
Plymouth won the JV game 29-24. Katie Davis led the Pilgrims with seven points while Sheryl Galt and Heather Tinkey had six each. Suzy Strom had nine to lead Valparaiso.
VALPARAISO 48, PLYMOUTH 38
At Plymouth
VALPARAISO (48): Lauren Hutton 2 4-4 9, Megan Rose 1 2-2 4, Cassie Kerns 7 0-0 14, Lindsey Humes 3 1-2, 7, Breanne Gustke 1 1-2 3, Kim McCloskey 0 0-0 0, Leslie Bryan 1 0-0 3, Katie Ramirez 0 2-2 2, Erica Humes 2 2-2 6. TOTALS: 17 12-14 48.
PLYMOUTH (38): Sarah Craig 5 3-9 14, Morgan Uceny 3 3-6 11, Laura Wendel 0 0-2 0, Austin Black 1 5-6 7, Shannon Gehrke 2 0-0 4, Stephanie Welch 0 0-0 0, Jessica Foust 0 0-0 0, Cassie Gantz 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 11 13-25 38.
Score By Quarters
Valparaiso 15 25 35 48
Plymouth 7 17 23 38
3-point goals: Valparaiso 2 (Hutton, Bryan), Plymouth 3 (Uceny 2, Craig). Total fouls (fouled out): Plymouth 16, Valparaiso 21 (Laura Wendel).
J.V. Score: Plymouth 29, Valparaiso 24.
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