Andrew Roberts scored the last of his 20 points at the buzzer to give North Platte a 59-57 win in KCI Conference play Friday, Feb. 5 in Lathrop, Mo. Lathrop tied the score at 57-57 with about 5 seconds to play. Austin Snook took an inbounds pass and outleted to Roberts, who drove for the winning basket as time expired. Part of a winning streak that has now hit seven straight, North Platte improved to 2-2 in KCI Conference play entering a Tuesday, Feb. 9 matchup with Lawson.
The result was not available at The Citizen’s deadline.
Roberts and Anthony Hernandez combined to score 20 points in the first half against Lathrop, giving North Platte a 30-21 lead at the break. The Mules slowly whittled away the deficit during the next two quarters with North Platte hitting three 3-pointers in the second half to pace a slowing offense.
Hernandez hit his second on the way to 12 points, while Hunter Oliver and Snook hit one apiece.
North Platte 72, Rock Port 43
Roberts scored a game-high 30 points, including four of the Panthers’ eight 3-pointers, in a win Monday, Feb. 8 in Rock Port, Mo. that extended their streak to seven.
North Platte senior Kyle Ewing added 15 points and Ben French 10 in the blowout. Austin Snook scored nine points on three 3-pointers. North Platte hit 31 field goals total and led 53-29 after three quarters.
North Platte 57, DeKalb 33
Despite a slow first quarter, the Panthers rolled to a win Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Dearborn, Mo. — their fifth straight at that point.
Roberts ended up with only 10 points but hit a 3 in the first quarter that helped North Platte to a 7-6 lead. Ewing took over from there, scoring 10 of his 20 in the second quarter. He added eight more as the Panthers pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Hernandez also totaled 10, hitting a 3 in both the second and third quarters.
A night earlier, North Platte won 61-32 at Orrick with 10 of the 11 players on the roster scoring at least one point. Roberts had a team-high 19, and Ewing added 16 — eight each in the first and third quarters.
East Buchanan 56, West Platte 39
After a strong first quarter, not much went right for the Bluejays in KCI Conference play on Friday, Feb. 5 at West Platte High School in Weston, Mo.
West Platte trailed just 14-12 early, but the Bulldogs outscored West Platte 30-13 over the next two frames before West Platte made a slight comeback against the backups in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a good lesson for us to be able handle pressure and still run our stuff,” West Platte coach Dillon Higdon said. “That’s something we didn’t do early in the year. We have definitely made some improvements. We were able to run some of our stuff, got some good looks, it just didn’t fall.”
West Platte senior forward Daniel Cicha continued his strong run of form with a team-high 14 points. No other player scored more than Luke Horseman’s eight.
West Platte 73, Northland Christian 50
Cicha scored a career-high 24 points, and the Bluejays hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter on the way to a blowout Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Weston, Mo. He had eight points in the first quarter in addition to two 3s each for Horseman and McKaulley Stephenson.
West Platte led 24-5 after the first quarter and didn’t trail from there.
Cicha added eight more in the third quarter, and Horseman hit five 3s to account for all 15 of his points. Brett Shepherdson scored at least four points in each of the first three quarters and ended up with 18 points.
West Platte set a season-high for points, topping the 66 put up in a win against Orrick earlier in the season, despite going 14-for-25 on free throws.