The North Platte girls’ basketball team (2-0) jumped out to an early 11-0 lead in its home opener and didn’t hold back en route to a 66-15 victory over Kansas City Lutheran (0-2) on Nov. 30.
Josie Roach, above, scored 11 of her 16 points in the first two quarters.
The Panthers started out in a full-court press forcing turnovers and scoring fast break buckets to help lead them to a comfortable lead early on. North Platte led 15-1 after the opening period and didn’t allow KC Lutheran to make its first field goal until 7:16 remaining in the second quarter.
“We don’t want anyone to ever get comfortable playing against us,” North Platte head basketball coach Karl Matt said. “I even tell them we play basketball because it is fun, the other team doesn’t get to have fun playing it, and they bought into that.”
North Platte closed out the first half on a 16-0 run when Josie Roach scored 11 of her 16 points in the second quarter with a pair of baskets from behind the arc. Lonee French and Gracie Ramsey both scored six points in the opening half and the Panthers had a 40-5 lead at the break.
“They just kept playing hard all game long. The defense is going to be there this year and I think the key is taking care of the ball and making shots when we need to and in the second quarter, we started to do that,” Matt said.
The Panthers’ offense continued to have success when they came out of the locker room as they scored 22 points in the third quarter. Seven North Platte players scored in the period, including Gracelynn Hoffman who knocked down back-to-back treys to close out the quarter giving the Panthers a 62-9 lead.
“They played really hard; we have a lot of good players and a deep bench. We have a lot of girls who want to get better, so they are going to keep pushing throughout the whole game,” Matt said.
The Panthers’ starters rested in the fourth quarter and 12 of their 14 players scored. North Platte will enter the KCI Tournament as the No. 2 seed where it will be hosting it for the first time since 2014, which was also the last time the Panthers won the tournament.