Since the start of the New Year, the West Platte boys’ basketball team (12-5) had lost four of its first six games until having success in the North Platte Tournament.
West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow was the MVP of the North Platte Tournament as the Blue Jays won it all.
The Blue Jays entered the competitive tournament as the No. 3 seed and opened up play with a dominant win over Braymer (10-8) – who is a district opponent – on Jan. 24 and then earned redemption against Mid-Buchanan (11-9), who won the last matchup, in the semifinals on Jan. 26. West Platte went on to play Platte Valley (18-2) in the championship and won 59-50 on Jan. 28.
“It’s been kind of up and down lately and we’re disappointed with our performance at home versus Lawson in conference and I think we’ve responded really well,” West Platte boys’ basketball coach Tyler Funk said. “I challenged the guys probably more than I’ve ever challenged a group before after that and we really got after it in practice, so I was proud of how we responded.”
Platte Valley is the No. 3 team in all of Class 1 and was the top-seed in the tournament but trailed 16-10 entering the second quarter until making it a one-point game at the break. Charlie Kinslow finished with a game-high 22 points to help lead the Blue Jays to a 59-50 win.
“I told the guys that you want to be playing your best basketball towards the last month of the season. It’s getting down to districts and playoff time, so playing your best basketball is the biggest thing,” Funk said.
The Blue Jays started the tournament against Braymer and had a 62-32 victory, which started with a 14-6 lead after one quarter and a 28-15 lead at the break. Braymer was the No. 6 seed.
The win didn’t only help West Platte secure a win against a district opponent, but also advanced the Blue Jays to the semifinals to take on Mid-Buchanan. This was the third matchup of the season – with the squads splitting the series up to this point – and marked the first time since 2014 that the Blue Jays beat the Dragons twice in the same season.
“It was about getting better than the first time we played them, and I think we proved we were a little tougher tonight. We gave them some different looks and when we hit adversity, we were tough in those situations,” Funk said.
The first half was tight, with West Platte narrowly leading 12-9 after the first quarter – when Kinslow had eight points in the frame – and the Blue Jays held on to a 3-point lead heading into the locker room. Mid-Buchanan tied the game at 24 and 26 in the third quarter but West Platte closed the frame out on a 12-4 run, capped off by a buzzer beating shot by Cohen Kite from way beyond half court to put the Dragons behind, 38-30.
“I think we’ve had about three or four half court and three-quarter shots hit on us this year, so I think the basketball gods were due for us to get one down. It helped, we were fired up and they had to kind of pressure a little bit more and we had a lot of ball handlers that stepped up, made good reads and got to the rim,” Funk said.
Drake Montez had six of the first 10 fourth quarter points for West Platte to give it a 14-point lead, which was the largest of the night, with right over six minutes left. The Dragons caught fire and knocked down five triples in the frame, but that wasn’t enough to erase the Blue Jays’ deficit as the game ended with a 59-50 win for West Platte.
“Between Drake (Montez) and all these different guys that were playing on the ball, we got to the rim and finished, and that’s kind of what separated us because they had to overextend their pressure. They kind of just sat back and just played a passive game because they were down by eight, so I think just attacking their pressure late really extended our lead,” Funk said.
The Blue Jays are nearing the end of regular season play and will have four of their final five games being against KCI Conference opponents. West Platte’s final two home games will be against Lathrop (8-9) on Feb. 3 and DeKalb (1-15) on Feb. 6.