Bay Port’s Jack Plumb scored 20 points in the Pirates’ 66-57 win over Green Bay Southwest Feb. 6.

BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT

SUAMICO – Bay Port boys’ basketball player Jack Plumb poured in a game-high 20 points in the Pirates’ 66-57 Fox River Classic Conference win over Green Bay Southwest Feb. 6 at Bay High School.

The 6-foot-8 Iowa football recruit scored 10 of the first 16 points of the game for the victors, as he shot an impressive 8-of-10 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe overall in the game.

“It’s huge for us,” said the senior Plumb about the win. “We have to win out these last few games so we can win conference – take one game at a time. I was by far the biggest guy out there, so I just used my size to my advantage and I was able to do pretty well (Tuesday). We shot the ball well and had the lead the whole way, but we let them get back into it a little towards the end. We feel comfortable where we are.”

Coupled with Pulaski’s 59-56 loss to Notre Dame, Bay Port (14-3 overall, 12-2 FRCC) now sits alone atop the FRCC with four conference games to go.

Senior Deland Phillips also helped out in a big way with his 10-for-10 night from the free-throw line. Bay Port made 19 of 21 (91 percent) from the line as a team.

Cordell Tinch added 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Alec Nagel had a trifecta of three-pointers to finish with nine points.

“All of the wins at this point are great when you already have two losses,” said Bay Port head coach Nate Rykal. “You have to find a way to win – give Southwest a lot of credit for hanging in there, but I thought we could have been a lot better taking care of the basketball. Fourteen turnovers is way more than we usually have – we are usually under 10 – so that was a little frustrating. We did persevere down the stretch.

“Jack was huge and the guys throwing the ball to him were really important, too. In the second half Southwest did a better job of helping on the back side and not allowing that entry pass to enter as easily. Jack did a great job of not forcing it – his footwork around the basket has really improved.”

With the help of Plumb, the Pirates jumped out to an 18-14 lead halfway through the opening half. That margin grew to 30-21 after Tinch converted on a four-point play with 4:46 remaining before intermission. Garrett Mooren also hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to preserve a 36-27 lead.

The Pirates came out on fire in the second half, bumping the lead to 19 (50-31) on a monstrous Tinch dunk – his 25th of the season.

Southwest (12-6, 10-4) would not go away quietly, as they eventually got to within five points at 62-57, but Phillips made six free throws down the stretch to seal the game for Bay Port.

Cole Bouche had 17 points for the Trojans, while Ty Melchert (13), Will Pytleski (13) and Carson Landry (10) all scored in double digits.

Bay Port is next in action Friday, Feb. 9, when they host Preble in another FRCC game. Come early from 5-7 for Bay Port’s STINGCANCER event in the commons/union. All proceeds will go towards EHE cancer research, in which one of Bay Port’s very own (Delaney Wahl) is affected by.

Box score
Southwest: 27, 30 – 57
Bay Port: 36, 30 – 66

GBSW: Melchert 13, Kamden 2, Stieber 2, Bouche 17, Pytleski 13, Landry 10; 3-pt: Melchert 3, Pytleski 1, Landry 2; FG: 21-54 (41%); FT: 9-10 (90%).

BP: Tinch 10, Phillips 12, Johnson 5, Nagel 9, Plumb 20, Melchior 5, Mooren 3, Schroeder 2; 3-pt: Tinch 2, Nagel 3, Melchior 1, Mooren 1; FG: 20-42 (48%); FT: 19-21 (91%).