With a chance to surpass last season’s win total and earn a double-digit number of tallies in the victory column, the North Platte boys’ basketball team (9-14) fell short in a pair of games this past week by a total margin of 12 points.
North Platte freshman Brenden Matt shoots a 3-pointer over an Excelsior Springs defender in the Panthers 62-53 loss to the Class 4 School on Feb. 1.
The Panthers were sitting at a 2-3 record at home and were looking to bring that to .500 with a matchup with Excelsior Springs (5-15) on Feb. 1 but fell behind early and lost 62-53. After that, North Platte hit the road and dropped a KCI Conference matchup 48-45 to Lawson (9-13) on Feb. 3.
Excelsior Springs was only the second Class 4 opponent that North Platte has played this year, with the other one being Savannah (2-14) back on Jan. 7. The Tigers started the game on fire, making their first five shots – three of which were from behind the arc – to set the tone with an 11-4 margin.
Creek Johnson scored seven points in the opening eight minutes, but the Panthers trailed 27-14 by the time the first quarter buzzer sounded. Brenden Matt and Hunter Palmer both made a triple from the left wing to start the second quarter to bring the game within single digits, but the Tigers pushed the lead to as much as 18 before a layup by Johnson made the score 45-29 at the break.
When Dylan Armstrong split a pair of free throws with 6:12 on the clock, he started a 9-0 North Platte run that was capped off by a Westin Snook left corner 3-pointer with right over three minutes left. After the Tigers scored a transition layup, the Panthers scored the last five points to make the score 51-45 heading into the fourth quarter.
Excelsior Springs opened the final frame with an 8-0 run and North Platte didn’t score until Palmer made a pair of free throws with 2:37 to play. The Panthers were unable to overcome the deficit late and fell, 62-53.
The Panthers had a chance to take down Lawson for the first time since 2008, but they fell just shy of that and lost by three points. North Platte moves to 1-3 in conference play with three more games left against Lathrop (10-10), East Buchanan (12-6) and West Platte (14-5).