The West Platte girls’ basketball team (11-4) overcame a slow first half in the opening round of the North Platte Tournament to avenge last season’s postseason loss and take down Polo (15-2) on Jan. 23.
Last year, the Lady Blue Jays were the No. 3 seed in the Class 2 District 15 Tournament and came up short against the Lady Panthers, 50-37. Polo also matched up with West Platte in the first round of the 2022 North Platte Tournament and won by 21, but the matchup had a different result this go-around with the Lady Blue Jays winning 44-26.
“They (Polo) didn’t have their best player tonight, she rolled her ankle on Friday, so obviously that makes a big difference, but nonetheless, it was still a big win for us,” West Platte girls’ basketball coach John Kruse said. “I think we kind of saw that she wasn’t playing, and we were like, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to be that bad,’ and then we quickly found out that they’re still a pretty good team that’s well coached and knows what they’re doing.”
The game started off sluggish for both squads with it being scoreless until Polo banked in a 3-pointer at the 3:02 mark. Julia Pattison scored two fast break layups and Madisyn Matlick made a midrange jumper to put West Platte up 6-3 after one quarter.
Pattison scored another fast break layup in the first 30 seconds of the second quarter, but Polo responded with 10 straight points. Matlick caught fire late – starting with a midrange jumper on the left side from a pass from Sam Baker with 2:39 to play in the half – and knocked down two straight shots from the right wing, but her foot was on the line for one of them, in the final 28 seconds to give her nine points and West Platte a 19-12 lead at the break.
West Platte junior Julia Pattison, above, scored a team-high 18 points for the Lady Blue Jays in the first round of the North Platte Tournament when the beat Polo 44-26 on Jan. 23.
“It took us a little while to get going; our first quarter was really rough and super ugly. Second quarter was okay and then I thought about the four or five minute mark at the third quarter, we finally found our stride and started doing things offensively that we needed to put the ball in the hole,” Kruse said.
The second half started slow as well with a deep 2-point jumper by Pattison with 3:02 to play being the first West Platte third quarter field goal. That was the first of four unanswered buckets by the Lady Blue Jays who ended the quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 27-15 advantage.
West Platte had an impressive defensive outing and forced a lot of turnovers in its press. The Lady Blue Jays’ first four buckets of the fourth quarter were off steals and they kept their foot on the gas to extend the lead to 18 points to take down the No. 8 team in all of Class 2.
“We have kind of like a four-headed monster up top with Julia Pattison, Avery Holmes, Blair McHenry and Sam Baker with our press. We do a lot of different things out of it, it confuses some teams at times and when you have to go against those four girls for 32 minutes, eventually you just get tired of it and that’s when people start making some careless mistakes,” Kruse said.
The victory gave West Platte its 11th win of the season, which is only one shy of last season, as it is on pace to finish the season with the most triumphs of the 21st century. The Lady Jays are 3-0 in the conference after defeating Lawson (12-6) in a non-tournament game for the first time in more than 15 years by a score of 53-22 on Jan. 20.
With the win over Polo, West Platte’s chances to earn a top-2 seed in districts has improved as both teams will be in the same postseason tournament once again. The Lady Blue Jays advanced in the North Platte Tournament and are scheduled to play on Jan. 26 at 7:15 p.m.