One of the many things that separated the PLL from other leagues was the implementation of new rules such as the 52 second shot clock and a shorter field. As the inaugural season kicked off, many wondered how the new league with new rules would look and how it would affect the outcomes and stats of each game.

Now with the inaugural season in the books and the Whipsnakes being crowned the Champions, here is a breakdown of the 2019 season by the numbers. We added charts and graphs to visualize the data.

League Summary 

Games: 37

Total Score: 906

Average Score Per Game: 24.49

Average Margin Per Game: 3.7

Overtimes: 9

One Possession Games: 19

Average Winning Team Score: 14.1

Average Losing Team Score: 10.4

Number of Players Who Scored: 105

One-Point Goals: 786 (Archers: 144)

Two-Point Goals: 60 (Whipsnakes:15)

Shots: 3,057- (Archers: 553)

Shots on Goal: 1,834 (Archers: 334)

Assists: 484 (Archers: 94)

GBs: 2,063 (Chrome: 373)

Turnovers: 943 (Chaos:170)

Caused Turnovers: 434 (Redwoods: 85)

A couple interesting trends to point out. Chaos was the hottest team in the league at one point. They started to cool off after Week 8 and were trending down heading into the playoffs, ultimately leading to their demise. The Atlas never seemed to find their groove all season long. They were literally a roller coaster when it came to scoring.

Score by Quarter

1st Quarter: 241

Highest Scoring Player: Eric Law (12)

2nd Quarter: 228

Highest Scoring Player: Marcus Holman (9)

1st Half: 466

Highest Scoring Team: Whipsnakes (83)

Highest Scoring Player: Will Manny (18)

3rd Quarter: 249

Highest Scoring Player: Jules Heningburg (12)

4th Quarter: 189

Highest Scoring Player: Marcus Holman (8) and Ned Crotty (8)

OT: 9 - Whipsnakes (4)

2nd Half: 440

Highest Scoring Team: Redwoods (87)

Highest Scoring Player(s): Marcus Holman (17) and Will Manny (17)

Notice the trends. The bottom three teams (Chrome, Atlas, Chaos) were the lowest-scoring teams in the second half. It is no coincidence they finished in the bottom half of the league.

A lot of people say the 3rd quarter is the most important quarter in lacrosse. Redwoods absolutely owned the quarter coming out of the half. A strong third can extend your lead or help you crawl back into a game.

The most common statement from coaches, “It is a four-quarter game.” The PLL champion Whipsnakes were pretty consistent throughout the game.

Two-Pointers

League: 60-377 (16%)

Whipsnakes: 15-78 (19.2%)

Chaos: 12-68 (17.6%)

Atlas: 11-76 (14.5%)

Chrome: 8-54 (14.8%)

Archers: 8-47 (17%)

Redwoods: 6-54 (11.1%)

The Championship game featured the team with the most two-pointers in the league (Whipsnakes) and the team with the least amount of two-pointers (Redwoods), proving that there are multiple ways to skin a cat. The winning championship formula included shooting and making the most two's. It can be expected that we'll see more two-pointers taken, and made, next season.