En route to making it to the KCI Tournament Championship Game, the West Platte boys’ basketball team (5-1) didn’t let a power outage or having to switch gyms phase them as the Blue Jays snapped a 6-game losing skid to Mid-Buchanan (4-3) with a 45-43 semifinal win on Dec. 8.
West Platte freshman Drake Montez (#15) celebrates with teammates Miles McHenry (#24) and Xavier Reynolds (#10) after drawing a foul on a made layup down the stretch in the 45-43 win over Mid-Buchanan in the KCI Conference Tournament Semifinal when the game was moved to the elementary gym after a halftime power outage on Dec. 8.
West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow scored all seven of West Platte’s points in the opening frame to put them up by one and the Blue Jays made four treys in the second quarter – including two by Xavier Reynolds from the left wing in the final 46 seconds of the half – to lead 21-16. Subsequently after Reynolds shot the lights out from deep in the final minute of the second quarter, there was a power outage in the West Platte gymnasium a few minutes after the halftime buzzer went off.
There was a delay, along with speculation on how or when the second half would conclude, but it was eventually announced that the contest would finish in the elementary gym – which is used as a storm shelter and had a backup generator to keep the power on – while the remaining games on the night were moved to North Platte High School. At the same time as the game, there was a wrestling match in the elementary gym so once that ended, which was an hour and 15 minutes after the halftime buzzer, the game continued between West Platte and Mid-Buchanan.
“Coaching for seven years, I’ve never experienced anything like that,” West Platte head coach Tyler Funk said. “It’s hard with high school kids to wait that long; you can’t ask them to be locked in for that whole time, so we talked in the weight room about focusing before we came up to the elementary.”
Senior point guard Charlie Kinslow, made a tough and-one layup in the first half of the Blue Jays first victory over the Dragons since 2019.
The third quarter finally began and Kinslow struck first with a transition layup 1:36 into the second half. In a 30 second stint starting at the 3:15 mark, the Dragons sunk a pair of shots from downtown – along with Reynolds doing the same in between – and West Platte freshman Drake Montez converted on an and-one layup before Mid-Buchanan scored a late bucket to cut the deficit to 36-32 with one quarter to play.
“It was a tough adjustment with a different court and different atmosphere, but the fans got really into it, and it was a fun little game. I’m proud of the boys making those adjustments on the fly because they came back and took the lead or tied it a couple of times and we hung in there,” Funk said.
For the first time since the 2:20 point in the opening frame, Mid-Buchanan tied the game at 38 with 4:36 left in regulation. Reynolds knocked down his fourth shot from behind the arc –following that up with a 2-point jumper after the Dragons made a free throw – to give the Blue Jays some breathing room.
“We could have done a better job staying calm with the acoustics in this gym and everything else. It’s kind of tough, but the biggest thing that I was proud of is just that they kept fighting,” Funk said.
West Platte senior Ezra Stigman knocked down three shots from behind the arc in the KCI Tournament Semifinal contest.
Down the stretch, Kinslow made a trip to the charity stripe and sunk both shots with 19.1 seconds left to give West Platte a 45-43 advantage. Mid-Buchanan senior Joe Clark took two shots in the final 10 seconds – including a half court heave at the buzzer after the Blue Jays missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw on the other end – but neither shot found the inside of the cylinder, and the Blue Jays defeated the Dragons for the first time since February 12, 2019.
“It’s a good win anytime you can knock off a one seed, and they were the returning conference champs, so I was proud of the kids. There was so much adversity that they faced, and I know they wanted that one bad, but I think the biggest thing is the job’s not finished. We have Saturday coming up, so I told them to enjoy this one and then it’s time to reset and focus on either Lathrop or Plattsburg,” Funk said after the win against Mid-Buchanan.
Miles McHenry pulls up for a jumper over a Mid-Buchanan defender on Dec. 8.
Dating back to 2015, Mid-Buchanan had won 13 of the last 14 games against West Platte before the semifinal matchup as the Blue Jay win advanced them to the championship for the third straight year. Coming off two championship losses to Mid-Buchanan, West Platte took on second-seeded Plattsburg (5-0) this go-round on Dec. 10.
The Tigers took a comfortable 33-13 lead at the break and went on to win 54-14 to give the Blue Jays their first loss of the season and third straight runner-up plaque in the KCI Conference Tournament. Reynolds made four shots from deep to lead the Blue Jays with 14 points and McHenry scored 12 points.
West Platte entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed and defeated fifth-seeded East Buchanan (3-1) 54-49 when Reynolds made three shots from downtown and ended with 11 points on Dec. 6. Kinslow had 10 points, while Miles McHenry finished with his third career double-double in his first four varsity games, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.