Katie Groom scored a layup with less than 10 seconds remaining in the first half as West Platte trailed South Holt 20-17 at the break on Jan. 7.
When South Holt (6-2) missed its second free throw attempt with 8.7 seconds remaining leading 46-44, the West Platte girls’ basketball team (5-4) had a chance to tie or win the game on Jan. 7.
West Plate senior Katie Groom rebounded the ball on the left block and made an outlet pass to Julia Pattison, who took off down the court towards the Blue Jays’ basket. The sophomore point guard attacked the rim and kicked the ball to the right corner to Madisyn Matlick who fired a shot from downtown, but the shot – along with Groom’s offensive rebound put-back attempt – was no good.
“We just made so many mistakes tonight; we were never fully engaged in the game and were making silly mistakes that we haven’t done all year,” West Platte head coach John Kruse said. “We were undisciplined on defense, fouled too much and turned the ball over too much; they made significantly less mistakes than us and that was the difference.”
It was a tale of two quarters in the first half when West Platte outscored South Holt 10-2 in the opening eight minutes before the Blue Jays’ offense cooled off in the second quarter and the Knights took a 20-17 lead at the break. Groom beat the first quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer and scored a layup with less than 10 seconds left in the first half.
“Every game this year, we have had a quarter that we struggled in, and the second quarter was that one tonight. I didn’t love our intensity; I thought we didn’t play as hard as we could have or needed to,” Kruse said.
West Platte had a 36-29 lead with 5:50 remaining in the contest, but a late surge by South Holt was too much for the home team to overcome. The Knights regained the lead 43-41 with 1:25 remaining before Hailey Shepardson tied the game after West Platte called a timeout.
South Holt scored a layup with 14.6 seconds left to take a 45-43 lead, then Pattison immediately drew a foul and went to the charity stripe with 11.1 seconds remaining. The sophomore split the free throws to narrow the deficit to one point, but the Blue Jays were unable to score again in the final 10 seconds to pull out the win.
For the first time this season, West Platte lost back-to-back games as the Blue Jays also fell to Mid-Buchanan (6-6) 38-26 on Jan. 6. The Blue Jays will head to the Lawson Invitational Tournament this week where they are the No. 2 seed.