Belton turns back pair of comeback attempts to continue Platte County’s skid

Not often does one single possession in the final minute of a potential double-digit loss into an absolute thriller.

Platte County received just that rare type of lifeline in a Suburban Conference White Division battle with Belton on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse. Some confusion on substitution patterns and a pair of late free throws ended up allowing Belton to escape with a 66-62 victory but not before nearly allowing a once-comfortable 12-point lead late in the fourth quarter to completely evaporate.

With 57.1 seconds left nine regulation, Platte County junior Judah Vignery and senior Boston Wahlert each hit a pair of free throws after a foul-technical foul combo called against Belton’s Greg Lyles. On the ensuing possession, Platte County sophomore reserve guard Jaden Peterson arced in a 3-pointer to cap another breakout game, closing the deficit to 64-62 with exactly 44.0 seconds on the clock.

“We had some guys step up and hit some 3s; we hit the free throws,” Platte County coach Rick Hodge said. “When you’re scoring those points, it kind of gets us going. We feed off of that, and we keep everything rolling. Yes, it changes the strategy a little bit, but now, you’re trying to go offense-defense.

“Once again, we claw our way in, but there’s just enough little things throughout the game that we’re not executing and finishing.”

However, Platte County faced a continued frustrating split of tight contests.

Belton successfully ran a bunch of time off the clock with Vignery on the floor with four fouls coming out of a timeout following the seven-point possession. Platte County eventually committed a shooting foul, allowing Belton to avoid a potential one-and-one situation, and Belton’s CJ Freeman still hit both with just 14.4 seconds left.

Platte County’s final possession ended with a 3-pointer at the buzzer from senior forward Chandavian Bradley, who could have only closed the gap to one at that point.

Vignery (game-high 24 points), Peterson (18 with four 3-pointers) and Bradley (14 points and eight rebounds) did almost all of the scoring for Platte County, which has now lost four straight after Friday’s night’s conference loss to Raytown. The Pirates have gone 3-6 over their last nine games with six of those decided by four points or less. This includes a 3-3 mark in the six essentially going down to the final possession.

However, Belton appeared to be in full control after turning back a first comeback attempt.

Platte County overcame a deficit of 14 points late in the third quarter, closing all the way within 49-46 on a driving basket from Bradley to start the fourth. That capped an 11-0 run, only for Belton senior guard Giovanni Mack to score seven of his 22 points in the remainder, starting with a big three-point play that quickly pushed the lead back to 56-47 with 5:55 on the clock.

Belton would eventually make the run 13-4 to go up 62-50 with 3:40 left, but Platte County continued to hang around thanks to Vignery, who scored 16 in the second half. He earned the opportunity to shoot the technical foul free throws and hit both. Wahlert, who finished with just four points, then hit his two in the one-and-one situation to make it 64-59.

Those were still mostly harmless without another big shot.

Peterson provided just that with his third 3 of the second half on his way to a career-high for scoring, surpassing the 13 he put up in the season-opener against Maryville and again in late January vs. Fort Osage.

“Jaden shot it well tonight and gave us a lot of scoring, and that’s why he stayed on the floor throughout the second half,” Hodge said. “Yeah, he came up big for us.”

However, the high-scoring trio couldn’t do enough to overcome missed opportunities in the first half and a hot-shooting effort from Belton in the third quarter.

Vignery hit an early 3-pointer to match an early one from Belton, and Peterson’s first triple gave Platte County a brief 11-8 advantage. Belton led 14-13 after the first quarter, and Bradley gave Platte County its final lead with the opening basket of the second quarter.

Belton answered with a 3-pointer to take the lead for good and ended up having all four of its second quarter field goals come from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Platte County missed a pair of dunks, and Bradley went just 1 of 4 on free throws in the first quarter.

“That’s kind of where we’ve been all season long,” Hodge said. “We have to take advantage of every single one of them, and we don’t always do that.”

Platte County trailed by six more than once in the second quarter, but Wahlert’s transition layup near the 2-minute mark closed it back to 28-27. His runner at the halftime buzzer didn’t fall, and Belton went into the break with a 30-27 lead.

Belton’s Cooper Shrum hit the last three of his four 3-pointers early in the third quarter to push the advantage out to 41-31, and JW Johnson hit two more around a layup for Vignery to make it 49-35 at the 1:55 mark. Platte County responded with the 11-0 run that included a breakaway two-handed dunk from Bradley followed by a turnover that led to a Belton timeout.

Out of the stoppage, Vignery rolled in a heat-check 3-pointer from deep to pull Platte County within 49-44 going to the fourth quarter. Bradley’s final bucket made the deficit one possession, and despite multiple chances to tie or close the gap more, Belton wouldn’t allow the hosts closer until the seven-point possession with just under a minute to go.