2 days Ago By By Ron Haramia Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH - The Plymouth High School boys basketball team sandwiched another celebration in between Christmas and New Year’s by finishing off the two-day 1st Source Bank Holiday Tournament with an offensive-led disposing of New Prairie, 69-35, in the championship game Saturday night at The Rock. The Pilgrims sensed it was going to be their night when their first four field goals were 3-pointers from four different players. By halftime, the team had hit nine from beyond the arc with Trenton Van Duyne connecting on three of the triples and fellow guards Preston Wolfe, Trey Delp and Dan Nguyen each adding a pair.
“When we’re all hitting 3s, the energy just goes up in the gym, we get hyped and that makes us play better,” said Van Duyne, who along with Kadyn Ellery was voted to the all-tourney team. “Now the opposing team has to come out on the 3s and that opens up the driving lanes and the kick-outs.” “New Prairie was sinking to the level of the ball defensively, so we wanted to penetrate and then we’d have open shots from the outside,” added Plymouth head coach Greg Miller.
New Prairie’s 6-8 senior forward Jaydon Clemons scored eight points in the first quarter, but Van Duyne matched that, including the second of his two 3s in the period at the buzzer to put Plymouth up by a dozen. The Pilgrims’ offense continued to excel in the second quarter, with four more 3s and five other field goals coming in transition as the home team had already scored 45 points by halftime. Plymouth scored another 19 in the third quarter as the lead reached as high as 39 and a running clock was used for the last couple of minutes of that stanza and the entire fourth quarter.
Kadyn Ellery scored all of his game-high 19 points during the second and third frames, with six of his eight field goals coming on drives to the basket, of which a couple were him getting the defensive rebound and going the length of the floor then converting. “My dad always taught me to handle the ball and now, even at my size, that has carried over,” said the 6-5 senior standout. “Coach allows me to do that and he’s given me that freedom.
I’m thankful for that and allowing me to show what I can do on the floor and trusting me. Coach preaches to play unselfish and that’s what we did. We moved the ball and were hitting shots.
” “He was frustrated the first quarter, but even though he wasn’t scoring he was playing a great basketball game,” Miller said of Ellery’s importance. “We got shots because of what (New Prairie) was trying to do with him.” Van Duyne scored all 16 of his points in the first three quarters, with half of his field goals coming on 3s and the other half on drives.
“Trenton is so consistent for us,” said Miller of the 6-1 senior. “He is able to create off the dribble and that is huge for us.” Wolfe was the other Pilgrim in double-figure scoring (10) and added five steals.
Speaking of defense, Plymouth was solid on that end of the floor collectively as well, holding the Cougars under their average of 40 ppg with a number of deflections and steals out of its man-to-man defense, keeping NP from gaining much traction in its offensive sets. “We’re starting to figure it out and not give up anything in the paint,” said Miller. “Anything on the perimeter, we want it to be a tough shot.
We did a good job on their main guys. I’m proud of the team effort.” After his big first quarter, NP’s Clemons had just two more points and tied Brody Wiginton for team-scoring honors with 10 each.
“This tournament was important because we’ve been up and down with wins and losses,” concluded Van Duyne. “Now we’re on a two-game winning streak and hopefully we’ll keep that going,” Plymouth’s next three games are also at home starting with Tippecanoe Valley on Friday, Jan. 3.
([email protected]) • PLYMOUTH 69, NEW PRAIRIE 35 At Plymouth NEW PRAIRIE: Dylan Bishop 0 1-2 1, Braden Bachmann 1 0-0 2, Jagger Daniels 3 0-0 7, Cayden Mayfield 0 0-0 0, Griffin Ernst 1 0-0 2, Andy Evers 1 1-2 3, Brody Wiginton 3 4-5 10, Issac Fronk 0 0-0 0, Hunter Nelson 0 0-0 0, Jaydon Clemons 5 0-0 10, Colton Krycka 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 6-7 35.
PLYMOUTH: Preston Wolfe 4 0-0 10, Kaden Milliser 0 0-0 0, Trey Delp 2 0-0 6, Dan Nguyen 3 0-0 8, Exzander Ramirez 0 0-0 0, Kadyn Ellery 8 3-6 19, Parker Bagley 0 0-0 0, Trenton Van Duyne 6 1-3 16, Hayden Feldman 1 1-2 3, Kylen Ellery 2 0-0 4, Parker Wolfe 0 0-0 0, Kyleb Ellery 0 0-0 0, Grayson Terrone 1 0-0 3. TOTALS: 27 5-11 69. Score by quarters New Prairie 10 20 29 35 Plymouth 22 45 64 69 3-pointers: Plymouth 10 (Van Duyne 3, Pr.
Wolfe 2, Delp 2, Nguyen 2, Terrone), New Prairie 1 (Daniels). Fouls (fouled out): Plymouth 13 (none), New Prairie 8 (none). Records: Plymouth 5-4, New Prairie 2-6.
