Plymouth’s Alli Andrews blocks the shot of Triton’s Hannah Wanemacher Thursday night in a 48-28 Plymouth win. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BOURBON – Inconsistency and the turnover bug bit Triton again Thursday night. Ten turnovers in the first quarter set the tone as Triton fell well behind Plymouth in a 48-28 girls basketball final at the Trojan Trench.

Triton’s Nicole Sechrist gets mean on a rebound.

The pattern of mistakes started early as the Lady Trojans once again had trouble handling a team’s full court press. Three balls thrown out of bounds in the first 3:18 of the game drew the path as Plymouth developed a 7-0 lead that funneled into a 14-2 bulge after eight minutes.

Triton, which scored just 18 points total Tuesday night in a loss to Bremen, gave the ball up 17 times in the first half, leading to eight Plymouth points. In all, the Lady Trojans committed 30 turnovers, which resulted in 21 Plymouth points.

“We can’t do the same things in practice that Plymouth can do on a regular basis,” said Triton head coach Adam Heckaman. “It’s hard to simulate that and learn when we haven’t seen it. I thought we handled (the press) better in the second half, but they backed off a little. It’s some small things we need to make some adjustments on.”

The Lady Pilgrims were not just sitting back waiting for freebies. Plymouth recorded 17 steals, a team-leading four from Alli Andrews, who seemed to be everywhere on the court. Andrews also had four offensive and eight total rebounds and led Plymouth with 16 points.

Plymouth went on a 15-3 run to open the third quarter, spreading out a 37-12 lead.

Halle Reichard had nine points for Plymouth, which also got seven points and five boards from Kenzie Quissell.

Triton’s Whytnie Miller put up a shot attempt over Plymouth’s Cece Robinson.

Hannah Wanemacher hit four threes to account for 12 of her team-high 14 points. Wanemacher, however, was hounded on all four corners of the court and coughed up 10 turnovers as Plymouth frustrated the junior all evening. Plymouth’s ability to get Triton in foul trouble also accounted for much of the bedlam, getting point guard Quinn Downing on the bench with two early fouls and backup point Sara Stevens in foul trouble with an already razor-thin Triton bench.

“We got beat by a better team tonight,” said Heckaman. “I was very proud of the effort. I thought the girls gave it everything they had and did what they could. We did some things better tonight than what we did Tuesday night and that resulted in some better things. I think the girls saw that and were encouraged by it.

“What we gotta go to the drawing board now is making basic passes,” Heckaman continued. “We had way too many turnovers. I think they had 21 points off turnovers, and when you give up only 48, that’s (almost) half the points. That’s the stuff we have to get better at.”

Triton, playing with just ten available players due to a myriad of junior varsity injuries, just didn’t have the horses to keep pace with a Plymouth team that is now 4-0 and is averaging wins by 23 points. Plymouth will host Valparaiso Saturday while Triton (1-4) will have to prepare for another home contest against a Northern Lakes Conference foe in NorthWood, which was in the house Thursday night detailing both clubs.

Heckaman noted Brianna Wilhite should return to action next week after getting injured earlier in the week. Megan McFarland is lost for the year with an ACL injury suffered against Bremen and Nicole Sechrist, who took a very hard fall in the third quarter against Plymouth, should be OK per the head coach.

The junior varsity contest for Thursday was cancelled due to Triton’s lack of healthy players. The game will not be made up.

Triton’s Sara Stevens advances upcourt against Plymouth’s Kacee Peters Thursday night.