Park Hill turns back upset bid after Platte County nearly erased double-digit deficit

Platte County finally found some middle ground in a game and ultimately a 35-27 loss found a fitting balance between progress and missed opportunity.

Park Hill stiffened up late and held on for a 35-27 victory in Thursday night’s’ nonconference matchup at Pirate Fieldhouse but not before the Trojans nearly let a 15-point lead slip away. Platte County never led but held possession multiple times with a chance to tie the score in the fourth quarter, but in the end, the Pirates settled for a beneficial opportunity to play out a competitive late-game situation.

This marked the first game for Platte County this season — win or lose — with a single-digit margin of victory.

“We hadn’t been in any tight games,” Platte County coach Eric Mitchell said. “We’ve either won by double digits, or we’ve lost by double digits so we were kind of concerned with how we would respond (if put into one of those situations). There’s some stuff we’ve got to clean up, obviously, with how we ended the game, but we gave ourselves an opportunity tonight which is a step in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, but it was a positive step for us.”

Platte County (5-10) didn’t have a field goal until the second quarter against an opponent that won the first meeting between the two teams 49-27 back in early December’s Winnetonka Invitational.

Yet, Park Hill’s once-comfortable early lead Thursday dwindled to 27-26 when Platte County senior guard Rylee Carr hit a jumper with 22 seconds left in the third quarter. The Trojans responded with freshman center Ja’Kyla Wright grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring a putback to beat the buzzer in what ended up a big momentum shift.

Platte County didn’t have another field goal, and sophomore Millie Parker’s split of two free throws in the fourth quarter ended up the lone point for her overall and the Pirates in the final 8 minutes.

“That’s just something we keep working on is putting them in beneficial situations and getting them in meaningful situations,” Mitchell said. “A lot of these girls, this is their first varsity experience in a tight game like that, to be honest. They’ve not had one this season, so learning how to handle themselves will help them down the road.”

Platte County couldn’t find the offense late, meaning the game’s lone tie came at 2-2 in the first quarter after a pair of free throws from junior forward Macy Doll.

Park Hill (8-8) raced to a 17-2 lead, hitting a 3-pointer in the final minute of the first quarter to open up the game’s biggest lead. The Pirates finally responded when senior guard Addie Ayers hit a 3 from the right corner just 16 seconds into the second quarter in what kickstarted a 10-0 run.

Carr scored five of those points, adding a 3 of her own right after Ayers and then provided a mid-range fadeaway to cap the rejuvenating stretch.

“We’ve struggled early a lot this year,” Mitchell said. “For whatever reason, we kind of start slow and scuffle a little bit. We challenged them at the quarter to chop it, just chop it down a little bit. We got some stops, and in the second quarter, we probably had our best four possessions in a row that we’ve had this entire year.”

Park Hill scored only 20 points total after the first quarter despite a distinct advantage in the post with Wright (12 points) and sophomore forward Nakiyah Chappell, who went scoreless.

Platte County’s zone defense seemed to complicate the offense with sophomore guard Audrey Sims rescuing the Trojans. She scored a game-high 19 points, including three of their four total 3-pointers.

“I think we played harder defensively,” Mitchell said. “I told them that’s the best and hardest we’ve played on the defensive end for an entire game this year. That’s been one of our challenges, making teams play to our style instead of letting them dictate to us.”

Platte County failed to attempt a shot from the floor for more than 2 minutes in the first quarter and then struggled to create clean looks with Wright and Chappell blocking and altering many of the attempts around the rim. The Pirates shot 4-for-10 from beyond the arc with most of the outside shots coming at key junctures.

Carr did most of Platte County’s scoring, although Ayers, who finished with six points, hit her second 3 early in the third quarter to pull the Pirates back within 24-19. Carr’s second 3 again closed the gap to five later in the third quarter.

However, Platte County only hit eight shots from the floor total. Carr finished with 14 points, while Doll’s four points all came from free throws with the Pirates, shooting 7 of 10 from the line overall.

Only five players scored for Platte County with sophomore forward Madeline Arthurs hitting her only field goal attempt to finish with two points but adding 11 rebounds and five steals.

“We did shoot well from the line tonight,” Mitchell said. “But we did miss some looks close to the basket that we’ve got to put in because we don’t shoot at a high enough percentage consistently to get away with that.”

Platte County has lost two straight since a season-best three-game winning streak, all in Suburban Conference White Division play. The Pirates now close the regular season with nine straight league matchups while looking to build momentum for what appears like an increasingly competitive opportunity in the Class 5 District 8 tournament.

Smithville 64, Platte County 29

The Pirates struggled start to finish in Monday’s nonconference loss — the first for Mitchell against one of the program’s chief rivals in his four-year tenure as head coach.

Smithville finished with a 39-14 advantage in rebounds and dominated interior play while racing to a 20-point halftime lead. Faith Peters, a junior forward, scored 19 of her game-high 26 in the first two quarters.

Carr led Platte County with 10 points and four rebounds, while Ayers added nine points despite shooting 1-for-8 on 3-point attempts. With Doll and Parker held scoreless, the remainder of the Pirates’ offense came from Arthurs (two points) and freshmen guards Emma Schank (five points) and Clare Stephens (three points).

Platte County and Smithville have generally battled for postseason seeding, but the Warriors dropped to Class 4 this season. That’s left Platte County and Kearney as the likely top two seeds in Class 5 District 8.