North Platte senior Camryn Kersten holds the ball in triple threat in the loss to St. Joseph Christian in the North Platte Invitational Semifinals on Jan. 25.
DEARBORN – A second-half scoring drought caused North Platte (15-3) to fall behind by as much as 15 points in the second round of the North Platte Girls’ Invitational Basketball Tournament against St. Joseph’s Christian (13-4) on Jan. 25.
North Platte was in control early but had a rough offensive stretch from late in the second quarter throughout the third quarter, shooting 4-of-30 from the field and 0-11 from downtown in that timeframe. Despite being up at halftime, the Lady Panthers eventually trailed by 15 in the second half.
“We couldn’t stop the bleeding and it got to where we just got a little bit out of reach, struggling to make some shots not only in the third quarter, but throughout the game,” North Platte girls’ basketball coach Ryan Davis said. “I also thought the effort was there; we got down 15 and fought back in the fourth, giving ourselves a chance to scrape back – we didn’t just roll over.”
North Platte made a run in the closing minutes of the game but couldn’t get defensive stops on the other end. Kenedie Summers and Lindsay Ramsey made some shots late, bringing the deficit within seven points but there wasn’t enough time left to complete the comeback.
“I’ll give them credit, Chloe Burnham, number two for them (St. Joseph Christian), is a great player and she did a great job. She had the answer a lot of times, she did a really good job getting to the rim. I thought we were trying to take away her shooting, take away our threes and we did a good job of that, but she did a really good job adjusting to what we were doing,” Davis said.
Burnham ended the night with 24 points, nearly scoring half the Lady Lions’ points in the 58-48 win. She had an efficient shooting night, making 11 of her 14 shots.
For North Platte, Ramsey ended with 16 points and nine rebounds and Summers finished with 12 points and four rebounds. Camryn Kersten had 13 Points on 5-of-8 shooting, along with seven rebounds and three steals.
“This (tournament) is good for us and it’s good that we’re getting some getting after losing a tournament (due to weather). We have four games in a row that are all going to be tough with St. Joe Christian tonight and next we’ll play Polo who knocked us out of districts last year. We have St. Joe Christian right back on Tuesday, and then LeBlond on Wednesday so we’re going to take our four games in seven days that are going to test us,” Davis said.
North Platte went on to defeat Polo (9-4) in the third-place game by a score of 47-42 on Jan. 27. The Lady Panthers’ first game of the tournament was a comfortable 65-35 victory over Mound City (9-7) on Jan. 23.
In that game, North Platte shot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep while grabbing a season-high 83 percent of defensive rebounds. Summers had 23 points and eight rebounds and Ramsey finished with 18 points and nine rebounds.