Platte County’s Lauren Stone goes up for a layup in the Lady Pirates’ 27-21 loss to Grandview in the Winnetonka Tournament on Nov. 30.
KANSAS CITY – For the first time since 2017, the Platte County girls’ basketball team (3-2) kicked the season off with a plaque from the winning side of the Winnetonka Tournament, taking third place in the Gold Division.
Coming off three straight seasons on the losing side of its respective bracket in the Winnetonka Tournament – having spent 2020 and 2021 at the Savannah Tournament instead – Platte County changed that this year. The second year under Eric Mitchell has started off well, with only one tournament loss.
The Lady Pirates hadn’t been on the right side of an early season bracket in quite some time, until taking down Oak Park in the first round. Platte County won 45-36 on Nov. 27.
Amani Harlin impressed in her high school debut with a double-double. The freshman finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting, along with blocking one shot and forcing one steal.
Lauren Stone, Haley Barlow and Addy Schlake all ended with six points. Schlake snatched 12 rebounds and Stone forced three steals.
The next game was a defensive battle with Grandview as Platte County came up short, 27-21, on Nov. 30. Neither team surpassed 20 points until the fourth quarter as the Lady Pirates only converted 19 percent of their shots from the field.
Schlake was the leading scorer with seven points, once again grabbing 12 rebounds. Lydia Doole and Stone both went 1-of-6 from downtown to finish with six points each.
In the third-place game, Platte County had a better night offensively and knocked down a season-high eight triples to pull out a 56-37 win over Truman (2-2) on Dec. 1. The Lady Pirates trailed 7-3 early, but Doole knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to put them up 9-8 after one quarter of play.
The game was tight the rest of the way, but Platte County held Truman scoreless in the final two minutes. Stone knocked down a career-best four shots from behind the arc and was two points shy of her career-high in points, dropping 14.
Doole ended with eight points, three assists and one steal. Barlow and Haley Schank both ended with seven points and one steal.
Before the impressive third-place finish in the Winnetonka Tournament, Platte County started the year off with a 53-43 victory over Savannah (1-1) on Nov. 21. Addy Schlake had 14 points and eight rebounds, while Barlow had 12 points and five steals.
Platte County came up short in its home opener, a 51-38 loss to St. Joseph’s Lafayette on Dec. 4. The Lady Pirates will look for their first home win of the year when they host St. Michael the Archangel on Dec. 11.