After a tough week the Platte County Pirates’ basketball team bounced back to claim first place at the Grain Valley Tournament with an 88-78 win over St. Michael’s in the championship game on Saturday, Jan. 30.
The big difference in the game was the way the Pirates started and finished. Platte County led 19-15 after one period but it was even the rest of the way until the start of the fourth quarter where the Pirates held a 59-55 lead.
The Pirates led by as much as nine points in the fourth quarter but the Guardians got the score down to five points with just over two minutes left in the game. The Pirates shot 13 free throws in the final period and connected on eight of them to ice the game. Head coach Rick Hodge told the Platte County Citizen his team showed poise down the stretch when the Guardians kept scoring.
“They were scoring late, hitting threes and driving to the basket,” Hodge said. “If we missed an assignment on a help position, we got what we wanted on the offensive end and that’s what allowed us to stay ahead of them.”
“They’re going to score in bunches and they do,” Hodge added. “But I also felt like there were some situations where we could exploit on our offensive end. I thought it was going to be a high scoring game and it was.”
The Pirates connected on eight three-point shots in the game and shot 47 percent from behind the arc. St. Michael’s shot even more threes and connected on 38 percent of those shots which amounted to 11 baskets including four threes in the final period.
Junior Joey Schultz led the Pirates with 25 points, nine rebounds and tied for the team lead with four assists. Three other Pirates scored in double figures led by Jaden Burnett who had 19 points followed by Alex McClure with 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and Jarett Mueller with 11 points and four assists. Jace Trimble added eight points and five rebounds and Daunte Alaiwat had seven points.
The Pirates got a bye in the opening round and faced Fort Osage in the semifinal. Platte County beat the Indians 81-50 on Thursday, Jan. 28, although the game wasn’t that close early in the first half.
Platte County held a slim 16-14 lead after one period and Fort Osage took a brief lead with over four minutes left in the half but the Pirates closed out the period on an 18-1 run to lead 38-25 at halftime. Platte County put the game away in the fourth quarter by outscoring Fort Osage 21-7.
Four Pirates reached double figures versus the Indians led by Mueller with 24 points including 2 of 4 shooting from behind the arc followed by Trimble and Schultz who each had 11 points and Brody Fulk who had 10 points. Fulk also led the team with 10 rebounds. Trimble led the team with five assists and Schultz had four assists.
Hodge said the tournament wins were big for his team’s confidence to get back on track after dropping two conference games last week.
“When I broke down film of how we played last week I didn’t think we played poorly but I thought we shot it poorly,” Hodge said. “I didn’t think that was us and I thought we would come out of it and I thought we shot the ball better this week than we did before.”
Hodge said there are a lot of things his team did well in both games that can carry forward into the final weeks of the season.
“As long as we keep moving the ball, sharing the ball and finding the open cutter or the spot up shooter I think we’re going to be okay and that’s what we’re going to keep drilling into their heads,” Hodge said.
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