With two losses in the prior four games, the North Platte girls’ basketball team (7-2) didn’t let foul trouble phase them in the Twelve Courts of Christmas matchup with Nodaway Valley (6-2) at Hy-Vee Arena on Dec. 19.
North Platte senior Lonee French draws a foul in the first half in the Twelve Courts of Christmas matchup with Nodaway Valley as the Lady Panthers won 64-51 on Dec. 19.
With a deep bench, the Lady Panthers were able to extend the 26-22 halftime lead when the reserves came in and helped the squad pull out a 64-51 victory. North Platte was in the bonus – with Nodaway Valley shooting one-and-one free throws when there was a foul called – starting at the 3:41 mark in the third quarter.
“In the second half we came out and played with more energy – almost more reckless – but in a way, that’s kind of how we have to play,” North Platte girls’ basketball coach Ryan Davis said. “We got into foul trouble, but once we got to playing our speed, we got up and down the court. We had some girls make some shots, especially Kenedie Summers and Alaina Scroggins.”
The Lady Panthers pushed the margin to double digits after senior Lonee French made a pair of free throws and Summers knocked down a trey from the right wing in the opening 2:34 of the second half. Before sophomore Brianna DeBord split a pair of shots from the charity stripe in the final two seconds of the quarter, Summers scored six of North Platte’s final nine points – with the only other points coming off a made right wing 3-pointer by Jaylin Burgess – and Nodaway Valley trailed 49-33.
“We’ll play some teams kind of like tonight where we’re going to use our second unit to help us extend the run. That’s kind of what happened when our starters came out and played well to start the second half but then when they were tired, our second unit extended the lead,” Davis said.
Nodaway Valley brought the game back to a 10-point deficit in the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter, but Scroggins responded with four unanswered points and North Platte rattled nine more points from that point on to pull off the victory. The Lady Panthers were coming off a 48-36 loss to Mid-Buchanan (5-5) – who they had just defeated 40-39 in the KCI Tournament exactly one week earlier – in the first game of regular season conference play on Dec. 16, so the Twelve Courts of Christmas was a good opportunity to bounce back.
“I think part of it is we’ve got to be more physical and play our brand of basketball. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to clean up, but in the process of cleaning it up, we can’t lose who we are and that’s what you saw tonight. In the first half, there were some things we’re definitely trying to work on, but the second half we tried not to worry so much about our mistakes but stay truer to our identity,” Davis said.
North Platte’s final game of the calendar year was scheduled to be against East Atchison (3-4) in the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame High School Holiday Hoops Showcase at the St. Joseph Civic Arena on Dec. 21. The Lady Panthers will start 2023 with a home game against winless Maysville (0-5) on Jan. 4.