The points piled up early and provided Platte County plenty of preliminary positives and paved the path to a 53-38 victory over Truman in Monday’s Suburban Conference White Division matchup. The Pirates entered off of a trio of potentially demoralizing losses to top-tier teams the week prior but showed the continued resilience of a mostly inexperienced group of players.
Platte County senior guard Rylee Carr takes a shot against Truman on Monday night at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County seniors Rylee Carr and Addie Ayers — the only two returning players with signifiant varsity experience — combined for 29 points after both were held in check against North Kansas City, Liberty and Grain Valley.
“For me and Rylee and just everyone seeing shots go in, I feel like that just helped encourage us, and now, we can go to practice on a good note tomorrow and keep working,” Ayers said.
Ending a three-game losing skid with the win, Platte County scored more points in the first half than the total in any of the games against North Kansas City (73-25), Liberty (56-25) and Grain Valley (57-24).
Ayers, who finished with 13 points, hit three 3s before halftime, including a pair during an 8-0 run that increased Platte County’s lead to 26-9 early in the second quarter. The advantage sat at 29-14 going into halftime, but the Pirates did the majority of damage with 21 points in the opening frame — eight for Carr.
In the most recent three losses, Ayers and Carr combined for just 26 points total before breaking back out against Truman while continuing to lead a youthful roster.
“I feel like it was good, especially considering our earlier games were a bunch of Class 6 schools. It was kind of discouraging,” Ayers said. “All these girls are younger. They’re not used to winning games.”
Platte County junior forward Macy Doll makes a pass against Truman on Monday night at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County (3-8) led by 18 twice in the third quarter before junior forward Macy Doll split a pair of free throws to increase the advantage to 38-19. That marked the first of two 19-point advantages with Ayers hitting a nifty up-and-under bank shot to put the Pirates up 42-23 going into the fourth quarter.
Carr posted a game-high 16 points to go with six rebounds, four steals and three assists, but Platte County continued to benefit from Doll (five points, five rebounds and three steals) moving into the starting lineup. However, the Pirates seemingly continue to search for the right first five with sophomores Madeline Arthurs (six points, team-high seven rebounds) and Millie Parker (five points) earning the call against Truman, which committed 19 turnovers.
Platte County came into the season off of three straight winning seasons, but Carr was the only full-time starter back from last year in what ended up amounting to essentially a total roster overhaul.
“I would say it’s just all on us getting to be a team,” Ayers said. “I feel like our chemistry probably wasn’t the best as it was like last year when we were all playing together. I feel like this is a very new team; we’re not used to each other.
“It’s really hard to transition, and I feel like we’re still transitioning. … Right now, we’re not where we’re going to be.”
Platte County freshman point guard Clare Stephens, who has started multiple games, posted a career-high seven points and added two assists, while sophomore Delanie Hoefling continued to earn more playing time off the bench and hit a free throw in the second quarter. The Pirates were able to go deep into the bench and also tinker with different offensive and defensive looks that have been difficult to install against a difficult schedule curated while seeking out challenges important to encounter during the recent run of success.
“That was good, too,” Ayers said. “In practice, you can only do so much. Whenever you’re in a real game situation, it’s really good to try new things. Like we did a press today (on defense); we’ve never pressed before, and I thought that looked good.”
Platte County looks to win consecutive games for the first time this season when hosting Raytown (3-8) on Tuesday before also playing William Chrisman (5-4) at home Thursday.
