PLYMOUTH – The Class 3A No. 8 Plymouth boys basketball team used a complete team effort to nab a 69-44 victory over the Whitko Wildcats Wednesday at The Rock. Improving their season record to 6-0, the Plymouth Pilgrims had four players in double-digit scoring and posted 18 assists to Whitko's (1-5) two. "It was a lot of unselfish play — making the extra pass," Plymouth first-year coach Ryan Bales said about his squad, which made 53 percent of its shots. "We've worked a lot on that in practice. Just moving without the ball when someone moves to drive. Our struggle this year has been, when someone drives, we kind of stare at they were making each other better. It's great to see that kind of basketball, when guys are creating shots for others. That's what it's about." Defensively, Plymouth was doing a little too much staring in the opening quarter, as all its attention was being paid to Whitko senior guard Logan Irwin. With so much concentration placed upon the Stetson Unviersity-bound Irwin, Plymouth allowed easy looks at the basket for other players, which helped the Wildcats hang around, trailing 14-10 after the first. "From a coaching standpoint, I probably overcoached it a little bit - putting too much emphasis on it," Bales said about defending Irwin, who finished with a game-high 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting. "We tried to chase him around and it really hurt our rotations. I think our guys were staring at him more than their own man. Then, we lost the other guys and they got a few layup opportunities. He's a great player and requires a lot of attention." Switching up their defensive scheme, Plymouth outscored Whitko 24-9 in the second stanza, getting a firm grip on the game with a 38-19 halftime lead. "It started with our defense in the second quarter and that led to some good offense for us as well," Bales said. "It wasn't anything special that we did. It was just a matter of our players going out and making plays." Fortunes turned in the third quarter after Plymouth's 6-foot-9 sophomore Mack Mercer picked up his fouth foul early. With Mercer on the bench, the Wildcats defense began to swarm, forcing eight turnovers and cutting the Plymouth lead to 50-37 with 7:25 left in the game, but once Mercer re-entered, things settled down. Back into action, Mercer netted eight-straight points to put the game away. "He definitely should have been well rested," Bales said about Mercer, who scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. "I thought Mack was real aggressive tonight. I liked his aggressiveness on defense. He did get called for some fouls inside, but again, I'd rather take Mack going after the ball like he was tonight compared to just sitting back and watching the action." Accompanying Mercer's production, senior Ryan McNeil had 13 points, making 3 of 7 three-pointers, while senior John Ruff had 12 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Tom Felke had 11 points, making 3 of 4 treys. Running the offense, junior David Lee had eight assists to go with his three points. The teamwork displayed by the Pilgrims handed Whitko its fifth loss in six games. During last year's 16-6 campaign, Whitko didn't get its fifth loss until its 19th contest. In defeat, junior Alex Stoddard had 14 points and three steals. The 1-5 start is also Whitko's worst start since the 2006-07 season, but it will look to bounce back on Dec. 29 at the Beef O'Brady's/American Trust Holiday Classic in Peru against the 3-3 Peru Tigers.
