A rough eight minutes of basketball for the North Platte boys’ basketball team (9-18) down the stretch of a postseason matchup with Maysville (23-5) was crucial as the Panthers’ season came to an end with a 66-48 loss on Feb. 20.
This was the second straight season that these teams matched up in the opening round of the Class 2 District 15 Tournament with the Wolverines winning both times. The Panthers entered the fourth quarter with a 42-40 margin but were outscored 26-6 from that point on to keep their season from continuing.
“It came down to we had a couple of stops and then we tried to get the ball off the floor really quick and they got hands on passes,” North Platte head boys’ basketball coach Braydn Kemper said. “They’re an athletic team and they just kept chipping the ball away and taking our advantage that we had, and then turned it into an advantage for them; then when Creek (Johnson) fouled out of the game, that really hurt us offensively.”
Jayce Gibson was one of four senior Panthers whose high school career came to a close with a 66-48 loss to Maysville.
Brenden Matt converted on a floater in the first minute of the fourth quarter to put North Platte back up 44-42 after the Wolverines scored on the prior possession, but the game went downhill for the Panthers from that point on. North Platte had six turnovers in the next 2:46 and Maysville put eight more points on the scoreboard until Kaden Mullendore ended the scoring drought with a transition layup.
Matt added another layup with 2:51 left – giving him a team-high 19 points and being the only Panther in double figures – to narrow the deficit to 54-48, but that ended up being the final points North Platte would score this winter. Maysville scored the final 12 points on the night and two Panthers’ starters – Creek Johnson and Dylan Armstrong – fouled out of the contest.
Brenden Matt had a team-high 19 points in the opening round of the Class 2 District 15 Tournament.
“We were playing physical, and I guess we were just a little too physical tonight and that’s just how it goes sometimes. It wasn’t a bit poorly called game; we just got put in some bad situations where we had a guy either drive baseline or we had to come over and help or we just got guys going downhill where we didn’t take charges,” Kemper said.
The postseason contest was highly competitive in the first 32 minutes and the Panthers erased a 7-point third quarter deficit. North Platte opened up the period with three straight turnovers to go down 32-25, but Coach Kemper called a timeout that changed the trajectory of the offense.
“I just told them to stop trying to dribble through the press, they (Maysville) have three really good guards that can pressure the ball. I told them we can’t just bring it up one-on-one with them and that helped limit the turnovers,” Kemper said.
Matt sunk a shot from downtown right out of the timeout to ignite a 12-1 Panther run that saw three more players – Kaden Mullendore, Dylan Armstrong and Westin Snook – scoring. A triple by Snook put the Panthers ahead 37-33, which was their largest second half lead.
In the end, the Panthers’ fourth quarter struggle was too much to overcome despite the Wolverines having struggles at the charity stripe, shooting six-of-16 in the final eight minutes when North Platte was in the bonus will fouls. The No. 5 seed fell and said farewell to four seniors: Josh Schaffart, Jayce Gibson, Wesley Meadows and Mullendore.
Senior guard Wesley Meadows goes up for a first-half layup at Plattsburg High School on Feb. 20.
“I talked about the senior class after the game, those four were awesome. We had a mix of guys that played a lot and some guys that didn’t play a whole lot, but one thing I loved about them is they were really good to the young guys that I know maybe wanted to play more, but they helped those young guys grow this year, and that’s something that is hard to do,” Kemper said.
In the second year under Coach Kemper, the Panthers ended with nine wins – after posting an 11-53 record in the three seasons prior to his arrival – which is the most victories the program has had since posting 14 in 2016. North Platte will have an experienced team back next winter after consistently starting players from the freshman and sophomore classes.
“I think these young guys are solid players, but there’s a lot of stuff to improve on as far as down the stretch of big games. You can look at our regular season games throughout the year, we didn’t win very many close games this year and part of that was us to being young,” Kemper said.
Meadows was the sole senior who started in the district contest as Johnson, who is a junior, and Snook, who is a sophomore, will be looked at as the top veteran’s next season. Matt and Armstrong both started the postseason game as freshmen and were joined by classmate Hunter Palmer throughout the night.