With less than half a minute on the clock, the home team owned a 53-51 lead and the momentum. Things looked bad for Plymouth, but senior point guard Austin Hodges found his younger brother Houston open behind the arc with 14 seconds left. The sophomore drained his second trey of the quarter to give Plymouth a one-point lead, and the Pilgrims held off the Tigers in the final quarter-minute of play for a down-to-the-wire, 54-53 victory Friday at the Tigers Den.
“That sums it up right there — character," said Stuckmeyer. “Our kids certainly showed that tonight, didn’t they? That’s what we want to see. They do that all year, and we’ll live with the results because more often than not it’s probably going to be on the good end. It’s just a tribute to our kids. They battled. They had a chance to fold there with that technical... That’s just our guys focusing, ready to take care of things, taking care of what they can and finding a way."
Peru built a 13-11 lead in the first quarter and doubled the lead to 28-24 at the half, although the Pilgrims did a solid job of keeping the much taller Tigers from scoring in the paint. On the offensive end, Plymouth relied on its 3-point shooting to score, and the Pilgrims hit 13 treys for a second straight game. They were actually more accurate from behind the arc than they were shooting two-point buckets as four Plymouth players converted at a 54 percent rate from 3-point land, and the team finished just 43 percent from the field as a whole.
Senior shooting guard Caleb Hadden and junior guard Davidson kept Plymouth in the game in the first half. Hadden hit three of his five triples for the night in the first quarter alone, while Davidson halted a 12-2 run as Peru tried to run away with the game in the first five minutes of the second stanza, burying a 3 from the wing and driving the baseline for a traditional 3-point play.
Davidson showed poise in several key moments Friday. After Plymouth opened the second half 8-1, junior Tigers guard Danny Comerford knocked down a 3 to give Peru a 35-32 advantage at the 4:50 mark, but Davidson answered with a 3 of his own on the other end. On the Pilgrims’ next possession, senior Jeremy Renz collected an offensive rebound on a missed Hadden attempt and kicked up to Davidson for another 3-pointer from the top of the key to extend Plymouth’s lead in the final two minutes of the quarter.
“He hasn’t gotten a lot of varsity experience. It’s what, his fifth game now?" said Stuckmeyer of Davidson. “I’m not sure he played the first game this season just because we weren’t sure who was going to be where. He’s a great spark off the bench. He gives us that scoring, kind of that one-two punch with Caleb. It takes a little pressure off him. It’s neat to see."
Plymouth also displayed good ball movement in its win Friday as the Pilgrims recorded 16 assists, including five by Austin Hodges for the night. Stuckmeyer said that ball movement and offensive patience was key to Plymouth’s victory as they slowed the game’s tempo down on the much taller, leaner Tigers in the second half.
“We knew if we let them get a lot of possessions offensively, it would probably be a tough night for us," he said. “The scored on us at will a couple times, so we knew we had to control that ball, maybe make them play defense for 30-40 seconds. Our kids did a nice jog of that in the second half.
“Peru is a great team," Stuckmeyer said. “They’ll win a lot of games this year. They’re going to cause a lot of teams trouble."
The Pilgrims will have a week layover before starting Northern Lakes Conference play next Friday against NorthWood. The game is at Plymouth at 7:45 p.m.
• PLYMOUTH 54,
  PERU 53
At Plymouth
Score by quarters
Plymouth:   11 24  41  54
Peru:      13 28  39  53
PLYMOUTH (54): Caleb Hadden 5 0-0 15, Brandon Elliott 2 0-0 4, Todd Vervynckt 1 0-0 3, Austin Hodges 0 2-2 2, Houston Hodges 2 0-0 6, Bo Davidson 8 1-1 22, Gordy Holloway 0 0-0 0, Jeremy Renz  0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 18 5-5 54.
PERU (53): Mason Zimmer 3 3-3 9, Terry smith 3 3-6 9, Wes Zimmerman 4 0-0 9, Luke Primerano 0 0-0 0, Taylor smith 4 0-0 10, Justin Engle 4 1-1 9, Danny Comerford 3 0-0 7, Austin shaw 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 7-10 53.
3-point goals: Plymouth 13 (Hadden 5, Davidson 5, H. Hodges 2, Vervynckt 1), Peru 4 (Taylor Smith 2, Zimmerman, Comerford); Turnovers: Plymouth 13, Peru 13; Rebounds: Plymouth 21 (Elliott 5), Peru 23 (Zimmerman 7); Assists: Plymouth 16 (A. Hodges 5), Peru 13 (Taylor Smith 5); Steals: Plymouth 7 (Renz 2), Peru 7 (Engle 2); Fouls (fouled out): Plymouth 16 (None), Peru 10 (None); Records: Plymouth 3-2, Peru 3-1.
JV score: Plymouth 44, Peru 32.