Spending the entire offseason thinking about losing in the district championship, the West Platte boys’ basketball team (9-4) avenged the postseason defeat against Gallatin (11-2) in the third-place game of the Lawson Invitational on Jan. 14.
Last season, Gallatin hosted the Class 2 District 15 Tournament and sent West Platte home with a 65-49 loss, but the Blue Jays were on the winning side in the first rematch this season. The Bulldogs were undefeated after the first game of the tournament – with 11 wins to start the season – but the Blue Jays’ hot shooting gave them their second consecutive defeat when West Platte won 66-60.
Gallatin jumped out to an early 16-11 advantage after the first quarter, but West Platte fought back and narrowly went ahead 29-28 at the break. The Blue Jays knocked down four shots from behind the arc in the second quarter and had six made shots from deep in the opening 16 minutes.
Ezra Stigman made a 3-pointer in each of the first two quarters and Jonah McGivern made one in the second quarter. Charlie Kinslow made one shot from downtown in the first quarter and scored 10 points in the second quarter – including two treys – to help West Platte take a lead at halftime.
West Platte didn’t cool off in the second half as three made 3-pointers by McGivern, Stigman and Xavier Reynolds in the third quarter extended the lead to 48-40. Kinslow added another shot from deep – and Stigman made his fourth and fifth 3-pointers of the night – in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Kinslow made the all-tournament team after he led the way with 20 points and Stigman scored a career-high 15 points. Miles McHenry ended with 12 points.
West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow goes up for a layup against Cameron in the opening round of the Lawson Tournament before the Blue Jays took down Gallatin in the third-place game.
Before reaching the championship, the Blue Jays opened the tournament with a first-round matchup with Cameron (4-5) – who West Platte defeated 74-72 in overtime earlier this season – on Jan. 10. West Platte never trailed in the game and led by as much as 12 in the opening half before heading into the locker room with a 30-23 advantage.
McHenry had his first fast break dunk of the season to make the score 40-31 with 3:27 left in the third quarter, but Cameron responded with seven straight points. Kinslow knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing with eight seconds left and West Platte led 45-40 with eight minutes to play.
Cameron scored back-to-back buckets to start the fourth quarter to bring the game within one point, but Reynolds knocked down a 3-pointer to ignite a massive West Platte run. Cameron didn’t score again until there was less than two minutes left and the Blue Jays advanced to the next round of the tournament with a 64-52 win behind 19 points and 10 rebounds from McHenry, 14 points and eight rebounds from Cohen Kite and 10 points from Stigman.
West Platte had a slow start in its semifinal game against Richmond (11-2) when the Blue Jays fought back in the second half before losing 50-40 on Jan. 11. The Blue Jays will host Lawson (6-11) on Jan. 20 before West Platte plays in the competitive North Platte Tournament the following week.