Right past the midway point of the 2021-22 season, the North Platte boys’ basketball team (7-8) has matched its combined win total from the last two seasons when the Panthers finished as consolation champions at the Osborn Invitational Tournament.
The Panthers – who finished with three wins in 2020 and four wins in 2019 – have been finding ways to win games recently after a slow 1-4 start to the season. North Platte has currently won four of its last six contests and is flirting with a .500 record, which is something that has been uncommon in recent history as the Panthers’ last winning season was in 2015.
North Platte entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed and lost to No. 5 seeded Pattonsburg (5-9) 69-53 when the Panthers opponent caught fire from downtown late in the game on Jan. 10. Pattonsburg knocked down four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to pull out the win and send North Platte to the consolation side of the bracket.
North Platte freshman Creek Johnson, above, scored nine points in the opening contest of the Osborn Tournament on Jan. 10.
“They are a team full of shooters and they hit tonight – and that’s what we knew about them going in,” North Platte head coach Braydn Kemper said. “I thought our defense could have been better, but you have to tip the cap to them for finding open guys and hitting outside shots.”
The contest was back-and-forth in the first eight minutes of play with two ties and five lead changes when Pattonsburg led 12-10 before extending its lead to 33-23 at halftime. North Platte came out of the locker room on fire as it scored more points in the third quarter than the entire first half.
Kruise Patch knocked down three 3-pointers in the first 2:30 of the second half to ignite North Platte’s offensive eruption. The Panthers eventually tied the game at 44 with 1:50 left in the third quarter after Landon Bartlett scored a layup.
“We settled in defensively in the second half; I think we were more worried about our offense in the first half. We let our offense dictate our defense instead of letting our defense dictate our offense,” Kemper said.
Pattonsburg beat the third quarter buzzer and North Platte trailed 51-48 with eight minutes to go. Pattonsburg knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers in a 90 second span to extend its lead 63-50 midway through the final frame. North Platte was unable to catch up from that point on and in the end, the scoreboard showed a 16-point deficit.
In the second round, North Platte won by its largest margin since defeating West Platte by 37-points on Jan. 27, 2017, when the Panthers took down Union Star (2-7) 63-26 on Jan. 11. After finishing with 18 points and six treys against Pattonsburg, Patch broke the Osborn Invitational Tournament single-game 3-pointer record when the senior sunk seven shots from behind the arc against the Trojans.
“It’s good, our offense is balanced usually; we have some shooters, but Kruise has been shooting the ball really well lately. We are putting him in spots where he can hit some shots, which is great for our offense,” Kemper said.
Patch continued his hot shooting in the consolation championship contest when North Platte defeated Dekalb (3-9) 59-42 on Jan. 13. The senior Panther sunk three more treys and implemented his name in the Osborn Invitational Tournament record book once again as Patch ended with the most made 3-pointers in tournament history with 16.