The Platte County girls’ basketball team (14-7) more than doubled its conference win total from a year ago, ending the regular season with a 5-3 record in the White Division.
Platte County sophomore Haley Barlow has helped the Lady Pirates finish conference play with a 5-3 record in the White Division.
The Lady Pirates ended conference play with a pair of wins over William Chrisman (9-14) and Belton (7-16) ahead of the end of regular season play. Platte County was in a different division in the Kansas City Suburban Conference last winter, finishing with a 2-7 record against those opponents.
“We are trying to get them to believe that every day they come into the gym, whether we have practice or a game, that that they need to improve and get better,” Platte County girls’ basketball head coach Eric Mitchell said. “I have a great coaching staff that really reinforces those things with the girls and they’re starting to kind of start buying and seeing the hard work.”
Platte County swept William Chrisman on the season with a 49-38 victory on Jan. 23 and 51-41 triumph on Feb. 9. In the most recent matchup, there were two ties and five lead changes in the opening frame until Lydia Doole hit a shot from downtown to put the Lady Pirates up 9-7 in the closing minutes and they never trailed for the rest of the way.
Platte County led 12-10 after eight minutes and extended that to 26-19 at halftime. In the second half, every time the Lady Pirates tried to put the game away, the Lady Bears would make a run of their own and bring the game within reaching distance.
“When you’re in conference play and you’re playing someone a second time, they’re never easy. When we kind of started to pull away, they would make some plays down the stretch,” Mitchell said.
Platte County ended up holding on to win by 10 points as Addy Schlake secured her second double-double in just as many games against the Lady Bears. The sophomore had 12 points and 13 rebounds – six on offense and seven on defense – along with two blocks and a steal.
Joslyn Hupp shot four-of-seven from the field to end with 11 points and Reese Pickett had 10 points. Platte County went on to beat Belton 50-43 on Feb. 13 and now has its most victories since the 2019 season.
With the postseason arriving soon, seedings for the Class 5 District 8 Tournament haven’t been dropped yet but the Lady Pirates have a chance to make a run. Mitchell told the Platte County Citizen what his mindset is for districts.
“We just have to play one game at a time. We can’t win a district championship with the first game, but you can lose it in one game, so you have to try to take care of that one and then move on to the next one,” Mitchell said.
Platte County will have two more games in the regular season, starting with a road matchup with North Kansas City (7-15) on Feb. 23. The Lady Pirates will host Oak Park (4-18) on Feb. 24.