KEARNEY, Mo. — For the second time this season Platte County left a tournament with a pair of wins.
The Pirates wrapped up a fifth-place finish with a 51-49 victory over Kansas City Southeast on Saturday, Jan. 18 in the Bulldog Classic.
The Pirates (6-6) moved to .500 on the season after winning the final two games of the tournament, which featured a one-day delay due to weather issues on Friday.
“When you play in tournaments you want to win, you want to end the week with two wins and we did that in Savannah and here,” Platte County coach Rick Hodge said. “We certainly did things this week we were happy with and some were aren’t. We are a young and inexperienced team and keep coaching and try to get better at the end of the season.”
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Platte County’s Dylan Minshall (23) goes up for a shot while Kansas City Southeast’s William Shelton defends during a game on Saturday, Jan. 18 in the Bulldog Classic in Kearney.
The first quarter featured a combined 16 points — Platte County led 9-7 behind seven points from Joey Schultz – as the Knights controlled the ball and ran the clock.
Southeast (4-13) took the lead early in the second quarter but Platte County took a 20-14 lead before each team hit a 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds.
Up 23-17 when the third quarter started, Platte County went on a 6-2 run to open the frame and pushed the lead to 10.
Over the next 2 ½ minutes, the Knights started hitting shots and got back in the game. A 3-pointer by Chris McKinnon made it 34-31 and Hodge called a timeout to regroup with the lead down to a bucket.
A basket by Dylan Montes upped Platte County’s lead to 37-33 but McKinnon hit his second 3 of the quarter at the buzzer to make it 37-36.
“You got to give them credit, they started making shots,” Hodge said. “When you can’t stop the drive and then they start making 3s, you are in trouble.”
The Pirates never lost the lead, scoring the first five points of the fourth quarter. A 3-pointer by Darrion Bables pulled the Knights within 46-43 with 1:35 to play.
Aenas Warner made the first free throw but missed the second, but Platte County couldn’t get the rebound. Southeast had the ball and took three shots with a chance to take the lead, but missed.
Schultz made a pair of free throws to push the Platte County lead to 49-44 with 31 seconds left.
That lead quickly closed after a 3-pointer by Warner. Up 49-47, the Pirates threw the ball inbounds but Roosevelt Thompson stole it. With a chance for the tie, the Knights threw the ball out of bounds. On the other end, Jace Trimble hit a basket to seal the win.
The Knights scored a layup at the buzzer to account for the final score.
“We need to fix a few little mistakes,” Hodge said. “We have been trying to find consistency. We get spurts from individual players and certain groups at different times but we are trying to put together more cohesiveness.”
Schultz finished with 19 points, 11 coming from the free-throw line. He was the only Pirate in double figures.
Warner had 12, while Thompson tallied 10.
Platte County 71, Kearney JV 33
In the second round of the Bulldog Classic, the Pirates blasted the Bulldogs on Thursday, Jan. 16 at Kearney High School.
The Pirates scored 43 points in the first half and built a 23-point advantage over the Bulldogs.
Up 15-7 after a quarter, Daunte Alaiwat scored 12 points, including two 3-pointers. He finished with a game-high 16 points. Brody Fulk added 13 for Platte County, tallying six in the third quarter.
Braxton Page led Kearney JV with 14 points.
Blue Springs 62, Platte County 53
The Pirates rallied in the third quarter to make it close but couldn’t overcome an early double-digit deficit in a loss against the Wildcats on Tuesday, Jan. 14 in the Kearney Invitational.
Blue Springs started hot by scoring 19 points in the first quarter, building an 11-point lead over Platte County (4-6).
Six different players scored a basket for the Pirates in the second quarter, but the deficit was 34-20 at halftime. In the third quarter, Platte County racked up 20 points, getting eight from Jarret Mueller, who hit a pair of 3s.
The Pirates were down 45-40 going into the fourth but Blue Springs hit all eight free throws in the fourth and Braden Applehans had seven of his team-high 13 points for the Wildcats. Cooper Willich also had 13 points for Blue Springs.
Joey Schultz led Platte County with 16, while Mueller had 10.