Pilgrim aids team with defense, rebounding
By: Bob Nuse
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North basketball game program lists Mike Pilgrim as a 6-foot-4 center. But even he’ll be one of the first to tell you he probably stands closer to 6-foot-1.
No matter what his actual height, Pilgrim is interested in just one thing helping the Knights win basketball games.
On Saturday, Pilgrim scored four points and had a game-high nine rebounds as the Knights topped North Hunterdon, 46-43, for their second straight win of the season.
"I take a lot of pride in my rebounding and defense," said Pilgrim, a junior who is in his first season with the varsity. "People always say that defense wins games. We have a lot of guys on this team that can score, so I don’t feel like that’s something I have to do a lot. I know we can count on the guys like Brian (Sufalko) and Ricky (Pyfrom) to do that for us."
Pilgrim has had his moments on the offensive end of the floor, but for the most part his strength has been on defense and on the boards. In the win on Saturday, it was Pilgrim’s steal with 16 seconds left that thwarted North Hunterdon’s chance to take the lead trailing by just a single point.
"He’s been a workhorse for us," said Knights coach Eric Becker, whose team will host Hamilton tonight. "He rebounds and plays good defense. And he has some nice post moves that he can use on offense. He’s come a long way for us. He played on the JV for us last year and he’s come along this year and done a nice job."
On a whole, Becker has been pleased with the progress of his whole team. After an 0-3 start, the Knights have come back to post a pair of wins and move within one game of the .500 mark. Each of the team’s first five games have been a learning experience and Becker can see the steady change in his team.
"I think we’ve made progress since the first game," Becker said. "We’re getting a lot of guys into the game and they’re all contributing. Chip Dow came in today and did a good job for us rebounding and he hit a couple of foul shots. Jeff Torralba came in and did a nice job for us.
"I like the flexibility we have with this team this year. They’re starting to play well together, which I like. Different guys have stepped up at different times, which is a sign of a team coming together."
After falling behind, 10-7, at the end of the first quarter on Saturday, the Knights battled back to grab a 26-18 lead by halftime. The lead grew as large as 42-28 early in the fourth quarter before the visiting Lions went on a 15-2 run to close the gap to one point with less than a minute to go. Most of the Knights’ offense came from Sufalko, who finished with 20 points.
"I think Brian kept us together for a while with his composure," Becker said. "He hit some shots for us and also made some big foul shots at the end. North Hunterdon made a run, which we expected because they’re a good team. They got some rebounds and put backs, so we tried to switch some things up on them."
Sufalko’s offense, combined with some good overall defense down the stretch is what made the difference for the Knights, who pulled out a game they might have let slip away in the past.
"When they made their run we didn’t get upset," Pilgrim said. "We tried to keep our composure. We’ve been in situations like that before and last year we might not have come through. But this year they made their run and we held on. We played well to get the lead.
"It’s early in the year and we’ve only played five games. We have some new guys on the team and we feel like we’re starting to gel now."
That gelling has led to two straight wins. And it has the Knights feeling a whole lot better about their future.

