Plymouth's Press Plunders Pirates in Home Opener

The Port Washington boys basketball team fell to the Plymouth Panthers in its home opener Tuesday night 57-39, just three days after a victory over Plymouth in the championship game of the Redwing Holiday Tournament at Sheboygan South.

The Pirates (2-1) came within six points in the third quarter with two timely buckets on back-to-back trips up the court by senior Sawyer Mosley, but would come no closer as they experienced their first loss of the early season.

“Just because we beat a team the week before doesn’t mean we can come out and expect a victory," said Pirates head coach John Bunyan. “But give them credit, they played a lot more aggressively than we did.”

The Panthers (2-1) got a little payback with their victory Tuesday, even dating back to . Plymouth has faced the Pirates, a non-conference foe, in three of its last four games.

The Pirates struggled with a full-court press that the Panthers implemented early on in the game. This defensive tactic was nothing new to Port, but Mosley said the team just looked “lackadaisical on Tuesday night."

“They used that press in the last two games we played them and we came away with victories both times,” Mosley said. “It was just our sloppy play and taking dumb shots. A lot of us got flustered and we never really bounced back. We had to regroup and we didn’t.”

Plymouth scored the first six points of the game before junior Kyle Rismeyer had an enormous block to set up a transition layup for junior Joey Burbach with just over three minutes to play in the first quarter. After some exchanging of baskets, the Pirates were down 13-8 going into the second quarter.

Plymouth came out of the gates firing in quarter number two, going on a 9-0 run before sophomore Sam Weiland eventually answered with a 3-pointer.

With just a few minutes left in the quarter, Burbach put some life back into the crowd with an impressive three-point play, but Devin Gumm came right back with a quick basket to silence the crowd once again.

Plymouth’s Parker Kastelic scored three of his game-high 20 points on a 3-point basket just before half, but senior Eric Graf was able to answer with a three of his own to beat the buzzer and cut the deficit to 11 points going into halftime.

“It was just mental,” said senior Chaz Puckett, referring to Port’s play in the first half. “They were in our heads and were stronger mentally.”

The Pirates looked a lot more composed in the third quarter, the only quarter they were able to outscore the Panthers, 10-9. Rismeyer scored quickly and set the pace for the quarter.

“They sped up our game,” said Rismeyer. “It took us a while to regroup, but we looked better in the third quarter.”

Port’s man in the middle, Zach Hauser, found himself in foul trouble early in the quarter though, and was forced to take a seat for the remainder of the third.

“That was huge unfortunately,” said Hauser. “When I had to sit down it meant one less big guy working the post for our team and helping out on defense.”

The Pirates looked poised for a late rally. A full-court press of their own rattled the Plymouth offense and allowed the team to get right back into the game.

Mosley sparked the team back to life with a long two, just after a good move into the hole for a layup on the previous possession, and brought the Pirates within six. The Panthers recovered, though, and took a 40-30 lead into the final quarter.

The fourth was all Plymouth, outscoring the Pirates 17-9 and surging to get an impressive road victory.

“We just didn’t do a good job at handling the ball at all,” said Bunyan. “We didn’t look sharp in our half-court game. We struggled, but we’ll get better.”

The Waukesha South Blackshirts come to town Friday night as the Pirates look to bounce back from a tough loss.

“We work hard on trying to limit our turnovers and run a good offensive set, and we didn’t do that,” Bunyan said. “We have to play as a team and work hard together. It was a good learning experience all around, and we need to come ready to play in our next game.”

Plymouth: Kastelic 20, Neils 14, Peterson 6, Henriksen 5, Gumm 4, Unger 4, Erdmann 2, Friederichs 2. FTs: 17-23.
Port Washington: Burbach 7, S. Weiland 7, Graf 6, Rismeyer 5, Hauser 5, Mosley 4, M. Weiland 4, Will 2, Puckett 1. FTs: 11-18.