PAINT BALL: Plymouth’s short-shot prowess too much for Salem
Plymouth senior Izzy Krause defends Salem’s Lainey Claramunt as she drives to the basket Tuesday night.
Similar to sinking 5-foot putts, what Plymouth junior Annie Flavin pulled off 11 times Tuesday night may look easy, but is far from it.
The Wildcat post player found the exact sweet spot on the Plymouth High School gymnasium’s backboards and flawlessly banked in 11 close-range shots — often with a Salem player so close Flavin could smell her defender’s brand of breath mints — that led to her 24-point night in the Wildcats’ 50-29 victory over the Rocks.
“Annie makes those shots look easy a lot of times because she takes a lot of reps in practice,” said Plymouth Head Coach Ryan Ballard. “I love Annie’s mindset. She wants to be great and she wants our team to be great, so she does whatever it takes.”
The victory was especially refreshing for Plymouth considering it lost to the Rocks, 37-36, three weeks ago — and the Wildcats were just 72 hours removed from a heart-breaking 49-45 setback to Northville in which they saw a 15-point second-half lead melt away.
Flipping the script
How were the Wildcats able to flip the script on the Rocks in just a few weeks?
“Our mindset was different tonight,” said Flavin, who was a terror on the defensive end of the court as well in the offensive paint. “We’ve been working on our defensive pressure a lot in practice, so tonight we attacked them instead of holding back.
“We were excited before the game tonight because we didn’t feel like we should have lost the first time we played them, so we were fired up to get one back.”
Plymouth, which improved to 14-7 overall and 8-6 in the KLAA West Division, will travel to either Livonia Churchill or Dearborn High on Feb. 25 for a KLAA fourth-place cross-over game.
Salem slipped to 9-11 and 4-10, respectively.
Tenacious D
The Wildcats’ defense was tenacious, holding Salem’s young but talented unit to a single three-point basket in the first quarter and 12 points at halftime.
“Our defense was much better tonight and we put the ball in the basket,” said Ballard, when asked how his team was able to earn an emphatic season split with Salem.
“These girls are so resilient. After our devastating loss to Northville on Friday, they showed up for Saturday’s practice ready to work. We watched film to learn what we can do better. We’re disappointed we didn’t finish higher in the division because we feel we can hang with everybody, but this team continues to work and, as a result, we’re getting better.”
The main reason Flavin finds herself in single coverage down low is that the Wildcats have multiple other weapons defenses must focus on.
Triple threat
“Our opponents have to pick their poison because we have Annie, Kenz (Mackenzie Dicken), Izzy Krause and Evelyn Stiglish, who can all score. With Annie, once she gets the ball on the block and she’s covered by a smaller defender, she’s pretty much money.”
The Wildcats received a nice boost off the bench from reserve guard Olivia Graham, who drained her first two mid-range jumpers from just inside the free throw line before knocking down a long third-quarter triple.
Dicken was also a huge factor in the victory as she nine points and often flustered whichever Salem guard she was defending.
Senior Noelle Martinez and freshman Lainey Claramunt shared scoring honors for Salem with seven points each.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
