Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - If anyone felt that Plymouth was a one-man team before Friday night, that has definitely changed. The Pilgrims brought the state's leading scorer, Brian Wray, to Wawasee, and Plymouth came away with an 80-57 win.
Wray was held to four points in the first quarter, but Chris Davis hit three three-pointers in the period, Cam Collins had six points, and Nick Chaney dished out four assists as Plymouth jumped out to a commanding 25-9 lead and cruised from there.
"They're good, there's no question about that," Wawasee head coach Jerry Davis said after watching the Pilgrims knock down 69 percent of their shots in the first half. "When you're shooting like that, there's not many nights when you're going to get beat."
Davis unveiled his new-look Warriors with three new faces and two missing ones. Leading scorer Jay Haugh and one of Wawasee's top men off the bench, Justin Shilling, both quit the team this week. Moving up from the junior varsity level were R.J. Wilson, Jeremy High, and Kirk Kaiser. Although none of the three made an immediate impact, they all got the chance to play late.
If there was any chance that Wawasee would just fold up and roll over the rest of the season after the roster changes, that thought was squelched in the second half. Despite trailing 50-21 at the break, Wawasee came out with intensity and emotion in the second half and outscored Plymouth by six.
"I thought that the energy and the excitement and the intensity that they played with throughout the game was very good," Davis said. "Even when we were down big, we stayed with them and battled them all the way. I was very pleased with that. We could have given up very easily, but that was the furthest thing from my mind."
Wawasee did a solid job on Wray in keeping him from exploding and taking over the game. However, he did end the game with 28 points, three points below his average.
"He's a great shooter," Davis said. "He shoots the same percentage from three (point range) as he does from two. Our idea was that if he's going to make them, make him at least make the two, not the three."
The bigger problem for Wawasee may have been Plymouth's Davis.
With his team leading 4-2 early in the first quarter, Davis canned a three-pointer. Then at 19-9 late in the period, he closed out the scoring with two three-pointers for the 25-9 lead after one period.
In all, Davis made 5 of 7 three-pointers on the night and complemented Wray nicely with 19 points.
One of the lone bright spots for Wawasee was the play of Brody Stipp. He scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds in leading the Warriors to a 29-24 rebounding edge over the Pilgrims.
"I thought he did a tremendous job in a very physical game," Davis said.
Jared Mahnensmith was the only other player in double figures in scoring for Wawasee, with 11 points.
Wawasee (1-8, 0-2) will be at West Noble tonight.
