The West Platte boys’ basketball team (10-4) finished in third place at the 28th Annual Lawson Invitational Tournament with wins against Cristo Rey (4-4) and Gallatin (10-4), and a loss to Chillicothe (7-5).
West Platte started off strong in the tournament when the Blue Jays defeated Cristo Rey 80-18 in the opening round on Jan. 11. West Platte jumped out to a 26-4 lead after one frame and a 43-8 margin at halftime.
Xavier Reynolds knocked down two of West Platte’s four treys on the night to give the junior 15 points. Three more Blue Jays scored in double digits – Ryan Pattison had 11 points, while Mason Montez and Dalton Hill ended with 10 points – and 10 West Platte players scored.
In the semifinals, West Platte was in a battle all night long against Chillicothe with neither team leading by more than six points, but the Blue Jays were eventually defeated 46-39 by the Hornets on Jan. 13. The Blue Jays led most of the first three quarters of the contest, but after the Hornets tied the game with 33 seconds remaining in the third period, West Platte never regained the lead.
“I thought we played hard most of the game; I think the third and the fourth quarters we stopped defensive rebounding a bit and that got them going with some second chance points,” West Platte head coach Tyler Funk said. “Looking back, I think we just got a bit stagnant offensively, and we just need to get that little extra toughness to finish out games right now.”
After Reynolds scored a basket with 1:56 left in the third period to give West Platte a 29-26 lead, Chillicothe went on an 11-2 run. Free throws were a key factor for both teams as nine of the Hornets’ 17 fourth quarter points were from the charity stripe, while the Blue Jays struggled at the line.
West Platte only made three of its eight free throw attempts throughout the night. Only 2-point baskets were mostly made in the semifinal contest with both teams only knocking down one 3-pointer, both of which were in the final 1:13 of the first quarter.
West Platte junior Charlie Kinslow (#23) scored eight points and knocked down the Blue Jay’s only 3-pointer of the night in the 46-39 semifinal loss to Chillicothe in the 28th Annual Lawson Invitational Tournament on Jan. 13.
“We struggled with our shot a little bit, but Chillicothe is a good defensive team and has held a lot of teams to low scoring, so they make you work for everything. I thought a lot of the shots were good looks, but they didn’t go down today,” Funk said.
The loss moved West Platte to the third-place game where it saw a district opponent in Gallatin when the Blue Jays were able to hold on to an early lead and defeat the Bulldogs 57-49 on Jan. 14. With West Platte and Gallatin having the best current records among teams who will be competing in the Class 2 District 15 Tournament this postseason, the victory has made the Blue Jays the favorites to lock up the top-seed when the time comes.
Gallatin struggled early – only making two baskets and scoring four points in the opening quarter – and West Platte took a 32-25 lead at the break. Ryan Pattison scored 10 of his 16 points in the third quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, to help his team lead by 15 points entering the final frame.
“It’s going to be a hard bounce back, but we talk a lot about staying together in times like these. We are going to find out a lot about our character and how much fight we have by coming back tomorrow,” Funk said after the semifinal loss to Chillicothe on Jan. 13.
The Blue Jays held off the Bulldogs in the final quarter behind 19 points from Charlie Kinslow, who scored nine points in the fourth quarter and sunk three shots from behind the arc on the night. Pattison averaged 13.3 points per game throughout the tournament and was the only Blue Jay selected on the 28th Annual Lawson Invitational All-Tournament Team.