In round three of the Blue Jays versus the Dragons, the West Platte boys’ basketball team (13-6) once again was unable to take down Mid-Buchanan (14-6) in the North Platte Invitational Third Place Game on Jan. 29.
The Blue Jays trailed by as much as 13 points in the second half, but they didn’t go down without a fight. West Platte scored 10 of the final 13 points in the third quarter to narrow the deficit to six points and eventually tied the game midway through the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell 45-41.
“We have been in a lot of close games, and it seems like we have been on the wrong end of a couple of those games lately,” West Platte head coach Tyler Funk said. “We’re going to figure it out and figure out ways to win those late.”
When Mid-Buchanan took a 36-23 lead at the 2:58 mark in the third frame, a Ryan Pattison layup and Charlie Kinslow deep 3-pointer ignited a 16 to three run by West Platte. Tanner Rowe knocked down a jumper with 26 seconds left in the period and the Dragons’ lead was cut to 39-33.
Trent Taylor and Dalton Hill scored the first six points of the final frame to tie Mid-Buchanan at 39 with 4:16 on the clock. The Dragons and Blue Jays matched a pair of buckets and Mid-Buchanan regained the lead 43-41 with 2:13 remaining.
“We made some adjustments at halftime with a press, and we were giving out more effort with getting loose balls, getting the ball out to guys in the outlet and getting defensive rebounds. When we called timeouts, our guys were out of breath because they were playing harder and that wasn’t the case in the first half,” Funk said.
The next two minutes were scoreless basketball, and the Blue Jays had a chance to tie or take the lead with less than one minute remaining but were unable to. Coming out of a timeout with 29 seconds left, Rowe’s pass to Kinslow ended up on the wrong side of half court with a backcourt violation.
After the Dragons missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, Kinslow went coast-to-coast, but missed a layup. Mid-Buchanan went back to the charity strip with 3.3 seconds left and made both attempts to push its lead to two possessions and the Blue Jays missed a half court heave at the buzzer.
“It was just poor execution late; it’s not anything with one player or one possession but those last few possessions weren’t the best. We threw it in the backcourt and then threw up a tough shot with about three seconds left, so I’m going to learn from those as a coach and we’re going to learn from that as a team,” Funk said.
West Platte senior Trent Taylor, above center, was the only Blue Jay who made the all-tournament team in the North Platte Invitational.
This was the second time that the rivals stepped onto the hardwood floor at North Platte High School as Mid-Buchanan defeated West Platte 61-51 in the KCI Tournament Championship back on Dec 11. The Dragons also bested the Blue Jays in overtime 40-37 in regular season play on Jan. 6.
In the semifinals, West Platte took on the top-seeded and eventual tournament champions in Mound City (19-0) on Jan. 27. After being tied at halftime, West Platte took a six-point lead in the fourth quarter but was unable to pull off the upset, losing 78-70.
Taylor had his best game of the season, finishing with 24 points – which eventually earned him a spot on the all-tournament team. Mason Montez sunk a pair of treys in the opening frame and ended with 16 points, but the senior got injured in the contest and didn’t play against Mid-Buchanan.