The happy ending that the West Platte boys’ basketball team (20-7) coveted didn’t quite work out that way when the buzzer sounded in the Class 2 District 15 Championship Game at Gallatin High School on Feb. 26.
West Platte senior Ryan Pattison, above, celebrates after making two 3-pointers in a 40 second span late in the Blue Jays’ 65-49 loss to Gallatin in the Class 2 District 15 Championship Game on Feb. 26.
In a packed gym that was nearly already full ahead of when the teams took the floor to warm up, Gallatin (22-6) eliminated West Platte from postseason contention with a 65-49 victory. For the second consecutive season the Blue Jays finished as a district runner-up, this time starting with a low-scoring first half when the Bulldogs led 22-16.
“I think it was maybe an attitude of what we were trying to do, we missed some shots early and started to panic just a little bit and started to force some things,” West Platte Head Coach Tyler Funk said. “Sometimes that is the way that basketball goes, I thought our looks in the first half were pretty clean and we are a pretty good shooting team so I’m not going to tell those guys to turn down shots, they just didn’t fall.”
The Blue Jays’ offense struggled in the opening minutes of the second half when the Bulldogs’ offense was clicking – scoring nine straight points to push the margin to 15. A Dalton Hill layup with 4:36 left in the third quarter ended West Platte’s scoring drought, which ignited its offense with three made shots from downtown in the following minutes after the Blue Jays had missed their first 10 attempts.
Charlie Kinslow made an impact in the closing minutes of the third quarter, starting when the junior forced a steal on the defensive end and found Ryan Pattison for a left corner trey in transition. Kinslow then scored five straight points and then dished it to Mason Montez for a right corner 3-pointer with 49 seconds left and West Platte entered the fourth quarter trailing 38-29.
“We just struggled to score and we missed some shots early; I think we missed our first 10 threes. Then we started pressing on offense a little bit and once we started to get to more of who we are in the second half, we started to go,” Funk said.
The final frame was high-scoring with both teams matching buckets and Pattison caught fire. The senior scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the quarter – including a pair of 3-pointers in a 40 second span - but the Bulldogs continued to answer on the other side.
After Gallatin led 52-42 with 4:39 to play, Pattison ended up with a steal and a fast break layup and then Hill put back a missed layup attempt from Trent Taylor, as the deficit was cut down to six points. The Bulldogs responded with a 3-pointer and then on the ensuing two Blue Jays’ possessions, Taylor was called for a charge and Pattison missed a trey with the clock ticking.
“For these kids to be down that much and to bring it back to within six, just shows there is no give in these guys. They’ve done this time and time again throughout the year,” Fulk said.
Kinslow knocked down a shot at the top of the key with 1:44 remaining to cut the deficit to 59-49, but the Blue Jays were unable to score again for the remainder of the contest. When his first season as the Blue Jays’ head coach ended, Funk told the Platte County Citizen how proud he was of the team and senior class he had in his first year.
“It’s been a blessing to have these six seniors and to watch them – I made everyone say bye to them – they are just a great example of what it means to be a Blue Jay, and I am so proud of them. For them to accept me in my first year as a young head coach, to listen, to be coachable and just want to win, it’s just such a great standard for the rest of the kids to look up to. It’s been a heck of a ride this year with 20 wins and more importantly, it was just a lot of fun – I hope they had fun because I sure had a lot of fun coaching them,” Funk said.
When the tournament concluded, two Blue Jay seniors were elected to the all-district second team: Tanner Rowe and Montez. Pattison had an impressive performance in the postseason with a pair of double-digit outings and Kinslow scored 12 points in the district championship.
Ty Lawson, Taylor, Rowe, Montez, Pattison and Hill were the six seniors who helped lead West Platte to its most wins since 2014. Kinslow is the only returning starter for the Blue Jays, but they have a promising future with some up-and-coming underclassmen.