Despite being the No. 7 seed in the Grain Valley Invitational, the Platte County boys’ basketball team (7-11) pulled out a third-place finish with a pair of wins against No. 2 Blue Springs South (10-11) and No. 5 Fort Osage (7-11).
Platte County sophomore Jaden Peterson had a career-high in points and hit the go-ahead 3-point shot down the stretch of the Pirates 53-49 win over Fort Osage in the third-place game in the Grain Valley Tournament on Jan. 28.
The Pirates entered the tournament with three straight losses, but they snapped that skid with a tight win over the Jaguars. Platte County pulled out a 55-53 triumph on Jan. 24 to advance to the winning side of the bracket.
“I know we were the seventh seed so if you get third with that seventh seed, you’re happy, but I feel like this is a pretty balanced tournament,” Platte County head coach Rick Hodge said. “We played two big, classic schools and we got the wins with those two games.”
In the first-round win, Chandavian Bradley led the way with 19 points and 15 rebounds, along with four blocks and two steals. Judah Vignery shot four-of-eight from deep to give him 14 points and Boston Wahlert ended with 10 points.
Platte County had a tough outing in the semifinals, losing 64-40 to Grain Valley (14-5) – who shot seven of 14 from behind the arc – on Jan. 26. The Pirates took on Fort Osage in the third-place game and came out on top 53-49 after a slow start on Jan. 28.
“I feel like early, but we were doing things well, we just weren’t finishing plays, whether we had turnovers that we shouldn’t be having or getting open looks that we weren’t knocking down, and that got us out of rhythm. Once we started playing tougher in some different areas, I think it helped get us going offensively as well,” Hodge said.
Vignery made a triple in the first five seconds of the game, but the Pirates followed that up with a 10:05 scoring drought. Fort Osage led 11-3 when the first quarter ended and pushed that lead to 15-3 early in the second quarter.
Wahlert knocked down two straight deep shots from the left corner to ignite a 15-3 Platte County run. The Pirates scored the final seven points of the half and tied the game at 18 with a fast break dunk by Bradley with 1:15 left before heading into the locker room tied at 20.
“We were moving the ball a lot more, getting it to the paint, sharing it and kicking it out to shooters. I think our shooters started to get in rhythm there and then we had some guys that knocked shot down,” Hodge said.
The Indians took advantage of the boards early in the second half, retaking the lead and scoring the first seven points out of the break. Platte County cleaned that up and responded with a 9-2 run and ended up tying the game at 33 with a deep 2-point shot at the top of the key by Vignery with four seconds left.
“I was very disappointed with our rebounding, even at the start of the third quarter, because that’s what kept them going, getting them second chance points. Once we started getting tougher on the glass, and secure in those rebounds, then we did a better job as far as keeping them in check on there,” Hodge said.
Vignery made a 3-pointer from the left wing in the first 45 seconds of the fourth quarter to give Platte County its first lead of the night. Fort Osage tied the game with a triple on the other end before the Pirates scored 11 of the next 13 points to go up 47-38.
The Indians knocked down three consecutive shots from behind the arc – two of which were off steals – to tie the game at 47 with 1:36 to play. Sophomore Jaden Peterson, who had a career-high in points, came up clutch and sunk a 3-point shot from the right wing to put Platte County back on top, 50-47, with 1:21 to play.
“Peterson can shoot it, has shown some aggressiveness and is doing some other stuff too and he had a big game for us. He does a good job with that but the thing I liked today was he was catching ready to shoot. He was in rhythm, and he knocked down some shots, but the other thing I was pleased with was not just the shots he knocked down, it was that he was also shot faking,” Hodge said.
Bradley gave the Pirates a 4-point cushion with a free throw with 28.9 seconds left and the Indians were unable to score again. Platte County won the contest and finished in third place in a tournament for the second time this season.
“I think the kids weren’t really intimidated or bothered by the seed at all; they wanted to come over and play and I was happy with how we played this week. We got two wins in the Kearney Tournament and two wins in this tournament, so I think we’re progressing in the right direction.” Hodge said.