Plymouth Contains Zolman But Can't Stop Warriors
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Five-foot-10 Wawasee junior Shanna Zolman stood in a hallway Saturday night and spoke of how good she thought her team could be if all five starters played at the same level in one game.
She says that hasn't happened yet. Moments earlier her coach/father Kem Zolman said the same thing.
"I don't know how dangerous we can be," Shanna Zolman, the state's leading scorer at 33.8 points per game, said. "We don't know who is going to step up on any given night. When all five of us are clicking, we're gonna be state contenders."
On a night Zolman was held to 17 points, the second-lowest scoring total of her career, the 3A No. 3 Warriors were still good enough to top 3A No. 6 Plymouth 47-44 in the championship game of the inaugural Northern Lakes Conference Tournament.
Wawasee, a team that starts four sophomores and one junior, improves to 12-0 with the win; Plymouth, a team that started four seniors and a junior, falls to 7-3.
On this night it was the sophomore duo of 5-11 Meagan Wallen and six-foot Jocelyn Higginbotham that stepped up.
Each scored 11 points, while they combined for 11 rebounds - nine less than Plymouth's team total. As a team, Wawasee outrebounded the Pilgrims 30-20.
"We knew we had to go to the boards," Shanna Zolman said. "They have fun playing defense. Plymouth is so fundamentally tough. They do stuff on me so well. I know if my shot's not on someone else on the team will be there. We did a lot of work on rebounding."
Said Kem Zolman: "Jocelyn Higginbotham, Jessica Leach, Meagan Wallen, Shanna, you could keep going down the line. It was a full team effort from those girls."
Plymouth took a 15-10 lead after the first quarter, but the Warriors came back and outscored the Pilgrims 17-2 in the second stanza, taking a 27-17 lead at the break. Plymouth came out in the third quarter and outscored Wawasee 11-6.
Plymouth coach Dave Cox said the game was everything he wanted it to be.
He said his team wanted the game in the 40s; the Pilgrims got that. He wanted a chance to win - Plymouth called a timeout with 29.9 seconds remaining to set up the winning shot.
"We wanted to win, that's why you play the game," Cox said. "We've lost three games, but we're not a bad team. We wanted to put ourselves in position to win. We wanted to get 40 (points) and be in position to win. We're OK."
Plymouth junior Lindsay Houin led all scorers with 18 points, while senior Andrea Bunton added nine points in the loss for the Pilgrims.
In seven days, the Warriors topped Warsaw twice, beat 3A No. 4 NorthWood in the semifinal round of the NLC Tournament and edged No. 6 Plymouth for the NLC Tournament title.
Wawasee hadn't beat Warsaw since 1986 and fell to both NorthWood and Plymouth in the regular season a year ago.
And Shanna Zolman doesn't think her team has played its best game yet.
No. 3 WAWASEE 47
No. 6 PLYMOUTH 44
Plymouth (7-3) 15 2 11 16 - 44
Wawasee (12-0) 10 17 6 14 - 47
Plymouth FG FT R S Pts.
Blackburn (G) 1-5 0-0 2 0 2
Houin (F) 7-16 4-5 5 0 18
Benge (G) 1-4 0-0 1 1 2
Cox (G) 2-6 0-0 6 4 4
Palmer (F) 2-4 0-1 0 0 4
Bunton 4-6 0-0 1 0 9
Swihart 2-7 0-0 5 3 5
Totals 19-48 4-6 20 8 44
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
Fawley (G) 0-2 0-0 1 0 2
Wallen (F) 5-9 0-0 4 1 11
Leach (C) 3-3 0-0 5 1 6
Higginbotham (F) 5-6 1-1 7 1 11
Zolman (G) 5-12 5-6 9 1 17
Henderson 0-4 0-0 3 0 0
Bradford 1-2 0-0 1 0 2
Totals 19-38 6-7 30 4 47
Three-point goals - Plymouth 2-9 (Bunton 1-1, Swihart 1-2, Blackburn 0-1, Houin 0-2, Benge 0-2, Cox 0-1), Wawasee 3-10 (Zolman 2-3, Wallen 1-3, Fawley 0-2, Henderson 0-1, Bradford 0-1). Turnovers - Plymouth 9, Wawasee 12. Fouls - Plymouth 15, Wawasee 11. Fouled out - none. [[In-content Ad]]
Latest News
E-Editions
Five-foot-10 Wawasee junior Shanna Zolman stood in a hallway Saturday night and spoke of how good she thought her team could be if all five starters played at the same level in one game.
She says that hasn't happened yet. Moments earlier her coach/father Kem Zolman said the same thing.
"I don't know how dangerous we can be," Shanna Zolman, the state's leading scorer at 33.8 points per game, said. "We don't know who is going to step up on any given night. When all five of us are clicking, we're gonna be state contenders."
On a night Zolman was held to 17 points, the second-lowest scoring total of her career, the 3A No. 3 Warriors were still good enough to top 3A No. 6 Plymouth 47-44 in the championship game of the inaugural Northern Lakes Conference Tournament.
Wawasee, a team that starts four sophomores and one junior, improves to 12-0 with the win; Plymouth, a team that started four seniors and a junior, falls to 7-3.
On this night it was the sophomore duo of 5-11 Meagan Wallen and six-foot Jocelyn Higginbotham that stepped up.
Each scored 11 points, while they combined for 11 rebounds - nine less than Plymouth's team total. As a team, Wawasee outrebounded the Pilgrims 30-20.
"We knew we had to go to the boards," Shanna Zolman said. "They have fun playing defense. Plymouth is so fundamentally tough. They do stuff on me so well. I know if my shot's not on someone else on the team will be there. We did a lot of work on rebounding."
Said Kem Zolman: "Jocelyn Higginbotham, Jessica Leach, Meagan Wallen, Shanna, you could keep going down the line. It was a full team effort from those girls."
Plymouth took a 15-10 lead after the first quarter, but the Warriors came back and outscored the Pilgrims 17-2 in the second stanza, taking a 27-17 lead at the break. Plymouth came out in the third quarter and outscored Wawasee 11-6.
Plymouth coach Dave Cox said the game was everything he wanted it to be.
He said his team wanted the game in the 40s; the Pilgrims got that. He wanted a chance to win - Plymouth called a timeout with 29.9 seconds remaining to set up the winning shot.
"We wanted to win, that's why you play the game," Cox said. "We've lost three games, but we're not a bad team. We wanted to put ourselves in position to win. We wanted to get 40 (points) and be in position to win. We're OK."
Plymouth junior Lindsay Houin led all scorers with 18 points, while senior Andrea Bunton added nine points in the loss for the Pilgrims.
In seven days, the Warriors topped Warsaw twice, beat 3A No. 4 NorthWood in the semifinal round of the NLC Tournament and edged No. 6 Plymouth for the NLC Tournament title.
Wawasee hadn't beat Warsaw since 1986 and fell to both NorthWood and Plymouth in the regular season a year ago.
And Shanna Zolman doesn't think her team has played its best game yet.
No. 3 WAWASEE 47
No. 6 PLYMOUTH 44
Plymouth (7-3) 15 2 11 16 - 44
Wawasee (12-0) 10 17 6 14 - 47
Plymouth FG FT R S Pts.
Blackburn (G) 1-5 0-0 2 0 2
Houin (F) 7-16 4-5 5 0 18
Benge (G) 1-4 0-0 1 1 2
Cox (G) 2-6 0-0 6 4 4
Palmer (F) 2-4 0-1 0 0 4
Bunton 4-6 0-0 1 0 9
Swihart 2-7 0-0 5 3 5
Totals 19-48 4-6 20 8 44
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
Fawley (G) 0-2 0-0 1 0 2
Wallen (F) 5-9 0-0 4 1 11
Leach (C) 3-3 0-0 5 1 6
Higginbotham (F) 5-6 1-1 7 1 11
Zolman (G) 5-12 5-6 9 1 17
Henderson 0-4 0-0 3 0 0
Bradford 1-2 0-0 1 0 2
Totals 19-38 6-7 30 4 47
Three-point goals - Plymouth 2-9 (Bunton 1-1, Swihart 1-2, Blackburn 0-1, Houin 0-2, Benge 0-2, Cox 0-1), Wawasee 3-10 (Zolman 2-3, Wallen 1-3, Fawley 0-2, Henderson 0-1, Bradford 0-1). Turnovers - Plymouth 9, Wawasee 12. Fouls - Plymouth 15, Wawasee 11. Fouled out - none. [[In-content Ad]]