Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 127, Number 1, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 1 January 2004 — Page 6

• Advance News • Thursday, January 1, 2004

Page 6

North Wood falls to Plymouth in tourney

► Ughtfoot HELD IN CHECK AS PILGRIMS WIN 61-52 By Ken Peterson For The Advance News PLYMOUTH Ryne Lightfoot’s 36-point performance last Saturday against Plymouth caught the attention of the Pilgrims coaching staff. So when the North Wood sophomore took the court Saturday night in the Northern Lakes Conference Holiday Tournament opener, a game plan specifically designed to contain him proved key for Plymouth. Constantly hounded by a number of defenders throughout the night, Lightfoot was held to a “mere” 20 points. Plymouth's Kyle Benge though, scored 28 points and Kyle Wallace added 11 as the Pilgrims handed the Panthers their first loss, 61-52, at The Rock. The win improves coach Jack Edison’s club to 5-2 and sends them into Tuesday night’s NLC Tournament semifinal against Northridge, a 56-32 winner over Elkhart Memorial. Tip-off at Plymouth is 6 p.m. with Warsaw facing Concord in the second semi around 8. The two winners will play for the championship Friday night at 8 at Warsaw. Coach Dan Gunn’s North Wood squad falls to 6-1 and is home Tuesday against Memorial. “(Lightfoot) is such a wellrounded player,” Edison said. “He drives the ball to the basket so well. He shoots the three-pointer and he cuts so well. He’s not only a tenacious player; he plays hard and plays smart. It’s not just a one-man job.” Plymouth’s awareness of Lightfoot was so strong that it was a struggle for the sophomore just to get the ball. He attempted just nine

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FRIDAY, JAN. 2 •NWHS Varsity/JV Boys’ Basketball, NLC/LCB Toumey, at Warsaw, TBA •NWHS Varsity/JV Girls’ Basketball, NLC/LCB Toumey, at Warsaw, TBA SATURDAY, JAN. 3 •NWHS JV Girls’ Basketball, NLC/LCB Toumey, at Concord, 10 am. •NWHS JV Boys’ Basketball, NLC/LCB Toumey, at Warsaw, 10 am. TUESDAY, JAN. 6 •NWHS Varsity/JV Boys’ Basketball, Si Joseph’s, there, 6:15 p.m. •NWHS Varsity/JV Girls’ Basketball, South Bend Riley, here, 6:15 p.m. •NWHS Varsity/JV Swimming (Boys/Girls), Goshen, there, 4:45 p.m. THURSDAY, JAN. 8 •Freshman Girls Basketball, LaVille, here, 6:30 p.m. •NWHS Wrestling, Wawasee, there, 6:45 p.m. •NWMS Boys’ Basketball, Goshen, 7th A & B here, 4:45 p jn.; Bth A & A there, 4:30 p.m.

shots and made five. Lightfoot was 8-of-10 from the charity stripe. "They're so adept at getting (the ball) to him," Edison said. “But they have good enough players around him that you can’t center on him totally!” Josh Sabo was the only other Panther in double figures with 11 points. “They out-hustled us,” Gunn said. "They outworked us. I expected that out of Plymouth. His (Edison’s) players responded." While Plymouth did the job on the defensive end, the offensive end saw its usual performers step up. Benge’s 28 points came on an 11 -of--19 effort from the field. "Kyle will be the first to say that he got some great screens and great passes,” Edison said. “1 thought he made the other players better around him on our team.” After Wallace’s 11, Scott Michel and Geoff Scheetz added eight each. The Pilgrims made 17 field goals, eight from beyond the arc. “There is no substitute for that,” Edison said. “You can have all the movement on offense that you want, but if you don’t finish, you end up on the short end. The shooting part was a big factor.” "(Last Saturday), they were 3-of--17 around the perimeter,” Gunn said. “This is home base and you expect them to shoot a little better.” The first half was a series of runs. After a Sabo basket made it 10-6, Scheetz answered with back-to-back three-pointers to end the first quarter and give Plymouth a 12-10 lead after one. “That was a big boost,” Edison said. North Wood responded with a 10-0 run of its own before the Pilgrims scored the final four points of the first half to trail 22-20 at intermission. Derren Lengacher’s basket with 2:07 left in the third gave the Panthers a 32-27 lead. It was 34-32 North Wood later in the period when the Panthers turned it over and Benge nailed a huge three-pointer to put Plymouth up for gpod. “That was a big turnaround,” lo

Gunn said. A Benge 3 and two free throws each from Michel and Scheetz upped the Plymouth margin to 48-38 with 2:59 to play. Lightfoot and Trevor Shields answered with back-to-back threepointers to trim the margin to four, but a Michel basket pushed the lead back to six. Plymouth scored nine of its final 11 points from the ffee-throw line to ice the victory. The Pilgrims were 19-of-22 from the charity stripe, including a sizzling 14-of-15 effort in the final quarter when the game was still in doubt. “They did a great job of hitting their free throws,” Gunn said. PLYMOUTH 61 NORTHWOOD 52 At Plymouth NORTHWOOD : Josh Sabo 4 2-2 11, Wes BeMiller 1 2-2 5, Ryne Lightfoot 5 8-10 20, Scott Mast 2 01 4, Trevor Shields 1 0-0 3, Phil BeMiller 0 0-0 0, Zac Lechlitner 1 33 5, Derren Lengacher 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 16 15-18 52. PLYMOUTH: Kyle Benge 11 3-3 28, Geoff Scheetz 2 2-2 8, Kyle Plumlee 1 2-2 5, Kyle Wallace 2 5-6 11, Dan Avalos 0 0-0 0, Scott Michel 1 6-6 8, Matt Houin 01-21, Matt Haug 00-10, Ryan Pickell 0 00 0. TOTALS: 17 19-22 61. Score by quarters North Wood 10 22 34 52 Plymouth 12 20 35 61 3-point goals: North Wood 5 (Lightfoot 2, W. BeMiller, Shields, Sabo), Plymouth 8 (Benge 3, Wallace 2, Scheetz 2, Plumlee). Total fouls (fouled out): North Wood 20, Plymouth 17. Records: North Wood 6-1, Plymouth 5-2. Officials: Dan Messina, Ed Pawlus.

When tou have a CHRONIC ILLNESS, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A DUMB QUESTION. Ask your doctors, your nurses, end therapists. Ask about your symptoms, your diet, and your treatments. Ask how your medicines work. Ask until you understand. The more you know about your condition, the more involved you can become with your health car# providers, end the better they can respond to your specific concerns. So write down your questions in advance. Then write down their answers. Remember, everyone on your health care teem works for you. It's your right to ask. And their Job to answer. W% your health. You —H the dieti. m H/inuwM Hwtw Catumm For awitanca or mors information, visit vmvw NationalHaaithCounoi org or writs tfta National Haafth Coundl at 1790 *M* Stiwt NW. Suita SOP. Waahington, PC 20Q9»-450S

Sports

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' . FILE PHOTO North Woo d's Ryne Lightfoot scored 20 points Saturday against Plymouth (JurWi the NLC Holiday Tournament. "*m Girls lose to Plymouth 44-36

By Ken Peterson For The Advance News PLYMOUTH Floor bums, loose balls and an inability for offensive consistency rang true in Saturday night’s Northern Lakes Conference Girls Holiday Tournament game at Plymouth High School. But the Pilgrims did just enough to advance to Tuesday’s second round. Stacey Wendel scored 11 points and Jessica Foust added nine as Plymouth held off North Wood, 44-36, for the second week in a row. The win sends coach Dave Cox’s 6-3 squad into Tuesday’s second round against Elkhart Memorial, a 5535 winner over Northridge. Tip-off is 6:00 p.m. at Memorial. Coach Steve Neffs Panthers fall to 4-5 and travel to Northridge Tuesday for a consolation round game. In a game that featured 38 combined turnovers, 39 combined personal fouls and 46 combined turnovers, Plymouth somehow found a way to win. “I thought the two players that played big for us were Stacey Wendel and Jessica Foust,” Cox said. “We’re winning these ugly, but the uglier the game the more the defense sticks out. This is a strange thing. I can’t remember ever playing anybody eight straight quarters.” North Wood held a 14-12 edge in field goals, but Plymouth won the game with an 18-6 advantage at the free-throw line. “They hit their free throws and we don’t,” Neff said. “We’re not playing as a unit right now.” Cox and his coaching staff developed a solid game plan that put pressure on the North Wood guards and try to make them do something. “We did a good job of pressuring their guards,” Cox said. “We didn’t think their guards could handle us so we

FILE PHOTO LEFT North Wood's Carrie Egging drives around a Plymouth defender earlier this season. Egging scored six points Saturday against the Pilgrims In the NLC Holiday Tournament.

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thought we’d check them out. They never adjusted.’' The pressure Plymouth put on North Wood’s gijards didn't allow the Panthers to feed the ball down low to junior Audrey Duncan. Duncan finished with four points, all in the first quarter. “I’ve got to get Audrey in the right frame of mind where she wants the ball,” Neff said. “She should be the dominant factor in the game.” “It wasn’t a low-block game,” Cox said. “It was a high, 10-second line game which favors us and offsets their (low-post) dominance.” s PLYMOUTH 44 NORTHWOOD 36 NORTHWOOD: Jessica Focht 2 0-14, Carrie Egging 3 0-0 6, Lauren Zeltwanger 2 3-4 9, Mandy Yoder 3 1-2 7, Audrey Duncan 2 0-0 4, Jen Kurtz 1 2-5 4, Sarah Shively 1 0-2 2, Joy Wisler 0 0-0 0, Whitney Frantz 0 0-0 0, Krista Bontrager 0 0-0 0, Heather Stutzman 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 6-14 36. PLYMOUTH: Stephanie Welch 2 2-3 6, Jessica Foust 1 7-9 9, Laura Wendel 1 04) 2, Austen Black 2 '2-5 6, Stacey Wendel 4 2-2 11, Elaine Hessel 1 34 5, Heidi Keiser 0 2-2 2, Katie Davis 1 0-6 3, Carrie Edison 0 0-0 0, Amber Boyle 00-00. TOTALS: 12 18-25 44. Score by quarters North Wood 11 18 25 36 Plymouth 9 22 33 44 3-point goals: North Wood 2 (Zeltwanger 2), Plymouth 2 (S. Wendel, Davis). Total fouls (fouled out). North Wood 22 (Focht, Egging), Plymouth 17. • Records: NW 4-5, Plymouth 74.