Plymouth misses dunk, key FTs, Kammerer scores game-winner for Valley

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Jude Kammerer Wes Parker

AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball player Jude Kammerer said he was in the right place at the right time to score the winning basket.

Throw in a missed dunk and a missed free throw from visiting Plymouth, and the Vikings pulled out a 56-54 win at Rita Price Simpson Court Tuesday.

Owen Omondi led Valley (4-6) with 12 points, and Wes Parker added 11. Omondi and Parker had seven rebounds each.

But it was Kammerer, who finished with 10, who retrieved a Plymouth blocked shot, and scored the game-winning layup with 42 seconds left.

Sophomore Kyleb Ellery scored a game-high 21 for Plymouth (2-8). Parker Wolfe added 14, and Dan Nguyen added 12 on four 3-pointers. 

Plymouth made 10 3-pointers as compared to Valley’s five. The Pilgrims made 8 of their 11 free throws while Valley made just 5 of 12.

But Plymouth’s Kylen Ellery missed a dunk in the fourth quarter when he tried to cram a wide open fast break finish with one hand, and the ball popped off the back of the rim.

And with Valley leading 56-54, Plymouth coach Greg Miller called a 30-second timeout with 14.5 seconds left. Valley had committed just one foul in the quarter up to that point.

Valley coach Eli Henson had Parker give a foul with 8.6 seconds left. Henson said they were trying to give two more fouls – “we should’ve fouled quicker,” Henson said afterwards – but Parker Wolfe took the inbounds pass near his basket and got to the paint. He missed, but Kylen Ellery rebounded, and Omondi fouled Kylen Ellery in the act of shooting with 3.8 seconds left.

With Valley fans roaring Plymouth fans hoping, Kylen Ellery missed the first free throw off the back of the rim.

Sensing that Kylen Ellery would miss the second free throw on purpose, Henson used his last timeout. Kylen Ellery did miss the second on purpose, but after a scramble for the rebound in the paint, Parker picked up the loose ball and heaved the ball to the other basket as time expired.

Valley has gone 4-1 since an 0-5 start.

“The start of our season was tough,” Henson said. “We played some tough competition, and it was an inexperienced group. They’re finally starting to find their rhythm a little bit. They’re finally starting to know what their role is within our team and finally starting to figure out what the ball needs to be doing on offense. And I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. We weren’t tired tonight. We were moving the ball really. We got to the basket really well. That’s how we have to play.”

Valley trailed by as many as nine in the first quarter but came all the way back and took a 47-40 lead on two driving buckets to the hoop from Hudson Shepherd, an Omondi driving banker in traffic and a William Mellott free throw with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

Nguyen then hit 3-pointers on Plymouth’s next two possessions – one from the right corner and another from the left wing after crisp Pilgrim ball movement – to cut the lead to one.

That’s when Hunter Stage hit a pullup 13-footer with one second left in the quarter to make it 49-46.

And with Valley clinging to a 51-48 lead, Stage, who had not made a 3-pointer since the Peru game Dec. 19, drilled a trey from the left wing to restore a six-point lead with 3:36 left.

“I want him to be able to do that every game,” Henson said. “Because he has the potential to do that. He doesn’t play a crazy amount of minutes. He’s probably sitting at 15 minutes a game, but he’s a role player for us right now. I want to continue to watch him build his confidence because shots like that can really do that for him. … You don’t take that 3 with three minutes left unless you’re confident. I just want to continue to instill confidence in these guys and watch them grow.”

Plymouth rallied again with Kyleb Ellery hitting two straight 3-pointers, both on kickouts after offensive rebounds, to tie it at 54 with 1:55 left.

Valley called timeout. Wolfe came up with a steal, but Kyleb Ellery stepped out of bounds while trying to drive the right baseline with 1:02 left.

Kyleb Ellery blocked a shot in the paint, but the ball deflected right to Kammerer, who was behind the defense. He laid it in to give Valley the lead.

“I was just in the right spot in the right time,” Kammerer said. “I saw the ball, and I was like, I’m going to snag it and go finish it.”

Kammerer, a 5-10 senior guard, is averaging 11.3 points per game over his last four games. He called Henson “super down to Earth.” He will “critique” your play but also give you “positive affirmations,” he said.

“We’ve been way more efficient on the offensive and defensive ends,” Kammerer said of the team’s recent improved play.

Valley led 11-8 in the first quarter, but Plymouth went on a 12-0 run on four straight 3-pointers – one from Nguyen, two from Kyleb Ellery and one from Grayson Terrone – that led to Henson calling timeout.

Mellott drilled a 3 from the right corner off an Omondi diagonal pass at the buzzer to cut the lead to 20-14, and that triggered a 16-4 run with Omondi, Parker and Kammerer each driving to the hoop for baskets.

When Parker hit a second chance 3-pointer with 3:24 left in the half, Valley had eradicated the nine-point deficit and had their first lead of the quarter at 27-24.

A 3-pointer from backup point guard Grant Anthony stretched the lead to four, but a Nguyen triple and a Wolfe 3-point play led to a 32-32 stalemate at halftime.

Plymouth led 38-36 in the third quarter on a sweet fadeaway 15-footer from Kylen Ellery, but Omondi showed off his own turnaround from the right baseline, and Parker went coast to coast for a layup to spark an 11-2 Valley run.

Plymouth won the JV game 54-45.

Game notes

• Valley travels to Class 2A, No. 16 Bremen Friday to kick off a four-game road trip. Bremen (7-0) is one of just 14 undefeated teams left in the state. Henson hinted at playing a “junk” defense. Bremen’s Chase Devine is averaging 24 points per game.

“They’re really good,” Henson said. “I like the way we match up with them. He is going to go get his 20. We’re going to do what we have to do to slow him down. We’ve just got to really make sure nobody else is popping off for them. … We’re going to do what we have to do to speed them up a little bit. Devine is so good that if you break containment a little bit, he gets downhill and makes some great decisions. We’ll come up with something defensively.”

• Dave Henson was spotted in the stands. In addition to being Eli Henson’s father and high school coach at Elwood, he was also Miller’s high school coach. Miller is a 2010 North Miami grad who later played at Grace College. North Miami broke a 41-year sectional title drought under Henson in 2009.

Tippecanoe Valley 56, Plymouth 54

PLYMOUTH (54) (2-8)

Kylen Ellery 1 0-2 2, Dan Nguyen 4 0-0 12, Kyleb Ellery 6 4-4 21, Parker Bagley 0 0-0 0, Parker Wolfe 5 4-4 14, Brady Allen 0 0-0 0, Grayson Terrone 1 0-0 3, Hudson Davis 1 0-1 2

TEAM: 18 8-11 54

VALLEY (56) (4-6)

Jude Kammerer 5 0-0 10, Hudson Shepherd 3 2-2 9, William Mellott 1 1-2 4, Wes Parker 4 2-4 11, Owen Omondi 6 0-4 12, Grant Anthony 1 0-0 3, Hunter Stage 3 0-0 7, J.J. Kammerer 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 23 5-12 56

Three-point field goals:

Plymouth 10 (Kyleb Ellery 5, Nguyen 4, Terrone),

Valley 5 (Anthony, Mellott, Stage, Shepherd, Parker)

Total fouls: Plymouth 11, Valley 9

Turnovers: Plymouth 16, Valley 14

Score by quarters

Plymouth 20 12 14 8 – 54

Valley 14 18 17 7 – 56

JV: Plymouth 54, Valley 45