PLYMOUTH - Just as Mother Nature did to the area, Plymouth's varsity boys basketball team put Whitko on ice Wednesday night.
The host Pilgrims used a balanced offensive attack, as three players scored in double figures and two others scored at least seven points, all the while their defense limited Whitko standout sophomore Logan Irwin to six points in the second half.Plymouth's efforts on both ends of the floor led to a 65-43 victory over the Wildcats, who entered the game on a five-game win streak.
"If you had told me before the game that Logan Irwin would only have six points in the second half, I'd have been pretty pleased," said second-year Plymouth coach Kevin Stuckmeyer. "Houston Hodges was ready to go. I could tell before the game he was ready to go. It was a team effort, it wasn't just Hodges guarding Irwin."
Irwin, who entered the game averaging 27 points per contest, scored 11 points in the first half, but the Wildcats trailed 21-14 after one quarter of play and 30-23 at halftime.
Junior Zac VanDeWater tried to help carry the load, finishing the game with 15 points, but outside of Irwin and VanDeWater the rest of Whitko's team scored just 11 points.
And with 6-foot-2, 250-pound Plymouth senior Leneil Himes using his size and strength to score a game-high 17 points off the bench, the Wildcats were simply no match for the Pilgrims.
"We missed some easy shots," said Whitko coach Rob Irwin, whose team missed a number routine shots in the paint and fell to 5-3 on the season. "Logan has been carrying a lot of the load. And when he's struggled, we've struggled. Logan, Zac and Travis Lepper are a big part of what we do, and when they struggle, we don't do as well."
After Irwin's 17 points and VanDeWater's 15, the Wildcats got four points from both Lepper and freshman Alex Stoddard, two points from junior Mitch Yeager and a free throw from sophomore Derek Snep.
Plymouth, on the other hand, didn't shoulder the load with just two players.
Himes led the way with 17 points, while Brock Smith scored 14 points, Bo Davidson added 11 points, Hodges chipped in with eight points and Todd Vervynckt contributed seven points.
"Leneil was big for us tonight," said Stuckmeyer. "I thought in the first half he settled for jumpers. At halftime I told him he needed to attack the basket. They had a smaller player on him. We did a good job of looking to get him the ball, and he did a nice job finishing."
Plymouth led 43-31 after three quarters of play, and then used a 9-2 run in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
"This was the most composed I've seen our guys in a year-and-a-half," said Stuckmeyer. "Guys made the unselfish play. We've had a lot of close games, but the guys continued to push forward and we were able to extend the lead."
Last season, the Pilgrims took a 3-3 record into the Christmas break, but a year in Stuckmeyer's system has paid off, and the Pilgrims have won four of their last five games and will take a 5-2 record into the Jan. 2 Carroll Shootout.
The Wildcats will be in action again Dec. 29 against host Peru in the Miami County Tournament.
