When the buzzer went off in the 52-32 win, the Platte County girls’ basketball team (6-2) avenged last winter’s postseason loss to Van Horn (3-5) and the Lady Pirates are officially off to their strongest start since the 2015-16 season.
Senior forward Joslyn Hupp scored 11 points in the Lady Pirates 52-32 win over the Lady Falcons on Dec. 16.
Ten months ago, these teams met in the opening round of districts when Platte County – who was banged up without Haley Barlow for the whole game and Joslyn Hupp left early and didn’t return with another injury – fell short, 36-34. In the rematch, the Lady Pirates were more focused on the present and not dwelling on the past loss.
“We talked about how that was the last game that group got to play last year, but not necessarily a revenge game,” Platte County girls’ head coach Eric Mitchell said. “We’re focused right now on where we can get better and as a team and we’re not quite there yet. There’s a lot of things that we’re still working on to get better, but it’s positive to see their effort and their energy is there.”
Platte County led all but 10 seconds, with that stint happening early in the first quarter. After trailing 6-4, Reese Pickett immediately knocked down a right wing trey to ignite an 11-0 run to close out the frame and put the Lady Pirates up 15-6.
Platte County sophomore forward Lauren Stone backs down a Van Horn defender in the first half of the Lady Pirates most recent home game.
“They started to execute a little bit at that point. We were looking to be in a couple of different defensive looks earlier, we made a couple of adjustments and the girls started executing and made some plays,” Mitchell said.
Hupp scored seven of Platte County’s first nine points of the second quarter and matched the Lady Falcons’ point total with nine as the Lady Pirates had 24 points at the time. Platte County took a comfortable 31-13 lead at the break and went on to win by a 20-point margin.
“They’ve done a pretty good job this season defensively at times and we still have some breakdowns at times, but overall, I’ve been pleased with where they’re at in their effort and how they’re getting there. They’ve got a couple of good players over there for Van Horn that are pretty good ballplayers, so we tried our best to kind of rein them in to keep them under the big point totals,” Mitchell said.
Haley Barlow had four points, two assists and three steals in the Lady Pirates 52-32 win.
The Lady Pirates are only two victories shy of last year’s win total and matched the 5-2 start of the 2015-16 season after beating Van Horn, which was the start of four consecutive winning seasons. Since finishing 14-11 in the 2019-20 season, Platte County hasn’t surpassed the double-digit win barrier, yet it is on pace to change that streak.
“We’ve talked as coaches about trying to get the best out of them, getting them to believe in themselves and telling them that they could do good things if they got to work. There’s going to be ups and downs and they have to understand that they need to keep playing through those ups and downs,” Mitchell said.
Hupp led the way in the Van Horn game with 11 points while Morgan Stewart – who made two of her three shots from downtown – scored 10 points and Pickett had seven points. Platte County went on to compete in the Twelve Courts of Christmas at Hy-Vee Arena and defeated Smithville (4-4) 45-34 on Dec. 19.
Hupp had her first career double-double on the day, finishing with a season-high 14 points and career-high 11 rebounds. Barlow ended the contest with 10 points and Lauren Stone added nine points and six rebounds.
The Lady Pirates had lost the prior wight matchups in the series, with the most recent win over the Lady Warriors coming on December 4, 2018. Platte County will close out the 2022 calendar year with a home matchup against St. Pius X (3-4) on Dec. 21.