The North Platte boys’ basketball team (9-16) has struggled in the closing stretch of the regular season but will have a chance to bounce back with a postseason rematch from last year.
Brenden Matt
The Panthers have lost their last four games ahead of the regular season finale against West Platte (15-7) on Feb. 14. North Platte will take on Maysville (18-5) in the first round of the Class 2 District 15 Tournament for the second straight winter.
The Panthers were eliminated with a 61-50 loss to the Wolverines last season and in the regular season rematch back on Jan. 4, Maysville won 47-30. North Platte will be the No. 5 seed and Maysville is the No. 4 seed in districts.
North Platte was in a battle with Lathrop (12-10) and fell 61-53 on Feb. 7. The KCI squads swapped the opening four buckets, but the Mules went on a 14-2 run after the contest was tied at four.
After trailing 22-13 when the first quarter ended, the Panthers prowled back to bring the game within one possession with a 9-2 run. Brenden Matt scored two straight buckets with right over six minutes on the clock, making the score 24-22.
Lathrop maintained its lead and went into the locker room without ever trailing and had a 28-27 advantage. North Platte took its first lead of the night when Westin Snook scored a layup in the opening seconds of the third quarter on a pass from Wesley Meadows.
Dylan Armstrong had six of the Panthers’ final 12 points in the frame and Lathrop was up 47-41 following a last-second 3-pointer by Matt in the third quarter. Snook added another triple early in the fourth quarter and Matt added a layup to bring the game within five points with 4:54 to play.
Armstrong put up his own miss to make the score 55-50 – with Lathrop up – with 2:52 to play, but the Panthers went on a scoring drought after that, not scoring again until the final 10 seconds of the game. With 1:14 left, the Panthers called a timeout with the ball and Creek Johnson had an open look from the right wing, but his 3-pointer was no good.
Matt had another look from the same spot on the next possession with the same result and then Armstrong had his layup blocked. The Mules went six-of-eight from the charity stripe down the stretch to push the margin to 61-50 until Hunter Palmer made his second shot from behind the arc with seven seconds left and North Platte lost by eight.
North Platte had a season-low in points in the next game, losing 52-20 to East Buchanan (15-7) on Feb. 10. The Panthers’ postseason matchup with Maysville will be at Plattsburg High School on Feb. 20 at 5 p.m.