Even as a scoring drought lingered on through the majority of the third quarter, Platte County didn’t allow a decent but still surmountable lead to dissipate.
Platte County sophomore Addy Schlake looks for space around the basket against William Chrisman on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
William Chrisman didn’t take advantage of an extended opening in a Suburban Conference White Division matchup Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse. Instead, the teams traded stops, and the Pirates eventually went on to a 51-41 victory to complete a season sweep of the Bears behind an extremely balanced offensive effort with all five starters totaling at least six points.
Platte County improved to 13-7 overall while leveling the conference mark at 3-3 in a manner consistent with the envisioned identity of first-year coach Eric Mitchell. The Pirates led most of the way but needed a strong and consistent effort in defense and rebounding characteristic of a sharp turnaround with similar pieces from last year’s eight-win season.
“We knew coming into this that they weren’t going to just lay down and let us have the win because we beat them last time,” said Platte County senior forward Reese Pickett, who scored 10 points. “We knew it was going to be a tough game. We just had to keep grinding the whole game and keep pushing the whole way through.”
Platte County’s impressively improving sophomore center Addy Schlake led the way with a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds to go with two blocks, while senior forward Joslyn Hupp added 11 points to give the Pirates a trio of double-digit scorers.
William Chrisman went into halftime down 26-19 and scored the first two points of the third quarter, but Platte County limited the Bears to just three points over the next seven-plus minutes. The Pirates responded with a quick 6-0 run behind a second 3-pointer for junior guard Lydia Doyle, who finished with six points, six rebounds and a team-high four assists, a split of two free throws for Hupp, and a putback from Schalke off of her own miss.
Platte County senior forward Joslyn Hupp goes up for a shot against William Chrisman on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County held the biggest lead for either team to that point at 32-21 with 5 minutes, 17 seconds left in the third quarter. The Pirates’ only other points of the third quarter came from sophomore guard Haley Barlow, who scored eight total, but their advantage remained at double digits with both teams struggling to score.
“Coaches always tell us the defense starts the offense,” Pickett said. “We normally focus on getting defensive stops and then our offense starts falling, so if we have a section of time or a quarter where we’re not scoring as much, we make up for it on the defensive end.”
Hupp, Pickett and Schalke took turns reaching double-figure scoring in the fourth quarter, and Platte County made just enough free throws — 15-for-27 overall — to hold on for the win. Those three combined to go 15 of 22.
The lead didn’t become insurmountable until the late stages for William Chrisman, which led 5-2 early in the first quarter.
Hupp scored the game’s opening basket, but Platte County struggled with turnovers against pressure defense early. However, a steal and layup from Barlow put the Pirates back in front at 6-5 with 3:12 left in the first quarter, and the Bears would not lead again.
Platte County ended up on a 10-2 run that included Doole’s first 3-pointer.
William Chrisman did trim the gap to 12-10 on a 3-pointer for senior Mele Taula, who scored a game-high 18 points to go with 11 rebounds, on a second-chance opportunity. Mitchell immediately called a timeout to express his displeasure at 24.2-second mark of the first quarter. The Pirates failed to score on the ensuing possession, but the message appeared to work.
Platte County junior guard Lydia Doole takes a 3-pointer against William Chrisman on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County started the second quarter with a defensive stop, and Hupp converted a three-point play on the other end. Fouls then started to pile up on William Chrisman, and the Pirates ended up with nine made free throws in the first half.
Even with a late 3-pointer from William Chrisman, Platte County took the seven-point lead into halftime. The Pirates’ lead only dipped below seven the one time after halftime.
Outside of Taula, William Christian did not have another player with more than five points, and the Bears shot just 30 percent from the field, made only three 3-pointers and shot just 12 free throws. The Pirates made it a season sweep of the teams’ two conference matchups after winning by 11 the first time around.
Platte County has quietly won four of the past six to mostly keep up the momentum from a fast start while navigating a difficult 2023 portion of the schedule. The contrast from the struggles in recent years remains evident in the effort and execution under Mitchell’s direction, and the Pirates hit the stretch run with a chance to finish at least .500 and third place in the conference and high hopes for a Class 5 District 8 field without a clear favorite.
“It’s definitely been a fun season,” Pickett said. “We have the coaches that are really amazing and just making it a fun environment. … It makes it more fun when we’re winning obviously, but not only that, the girls, we’re all friends and we all get along and it makes it a lot better.”
Grain Valley 64, Platte County 51
The Pirates started the week with an encouragingly competitive effort against Class 6-ranked Grain Valley, which prevailed in Monday’s conference matchup at Pirate Fieldhouse behind 36 points from 6-foot-2 Division I-bound senior guard Grace Slaughter.
Platte County sophomore guard Lauren Stone takes a shot against William Chrisman on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
In fact, Platte County led early then whittled an 18-point deficit to start the third quarter all the way down to eight with 1:55 to go. The Pirates hit all four of their 3-pointers in the second half, and sophomore guard Lauren Stone splashed home a pair and Pickett another during the fourth quarter comeback bid.
One triple apiece from Stone and Pickett pulled Platte County within 55-43, but Slaughter continued to answer. A three-point play from Hupp pulled the Pirates slightly closer at 59-48 with 3 1/2 minutes left in regulation.
Stone’s second 3-pointer provided another shot of energy with 1:55 on the clock. She continued to provide a spark as a scoring option off the bench since moving to a reserve role after an ankle injury recently forced her to miss time across multiple games.
However, Grain Valley would snuff out the comeback from there and prevail.
Stone, Schlake and Hupp all finished with 12 points but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with Slaughter and seven total 3s for the angles. Pickett, who added nine points, scored the game’s opening basket, but Grain Valley went up 11-5 with help from a pair of Slaughter’s four 3-pointers.
Platte County showed the original fight after going behind 19-9 entering the second quarter. The Pirates scored the next eight points on a Barlow layup, a basket for Hupp, two free throws from Stone and then a layup for Pickett off of a turnover.
Grain Valley ran more than a minute off the clock to hold for the last shot of the first quarter and ended up going well more than 5 minutes without a point. The Eagles took a timeout with 4:00 left before halftime after Pickett’s layup trimmed the gap to 19-17. Slaughter split a pair of free throws on the next possession, drawing a foul after rebounding a missed 3-pointer.
Platte County sophomore guard Haley Barlow takes a shot against William Chrisman on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County’s struggles against full-court pressure with Slaughter’s rangy defense resulted in 23 turnovers, and Grain Valley made a run late in the second quarter to take an eight-point lead in the break.
Schlake, who also grabbed 10 rebounds, scored 10 in the first half as a big bright spot, and Pickett’s bucket early in the third quarter again pulled Platte County within six. However, Slaughter scored Grain Valley’s first 11 points of the third quarter and helped push the advantage all the way out to 44-29.
Stone’s first 3 cut the deficit to 44-32 before Grain Valley extended the advantage back out to 18 at 53-35 going to the fourth quarter.
Hupp ended up with a double-double, adding a game-high 10 rebounds for Platte County, and Doole dished out six assists but scored just two points. The encouragement came from keeping Grain Valley in sight after the Eagles won the first match between the two by 35 points just three weeks earlier.
Platte County 52, Fort Osage 47
The Pirates went into this week’s conference two-step after a week layoff following a win the prior Monday in Independence.
Fort Osage led most of the way in the non conference matchup but yielded a late comeback thanks to 14 points from Doole, who hit two of Platte County’s three 3-pointers on a tough shooting night (32 percent overall) along with five rebounds and three steals. Schlake just missed a double-double with eight points and 11 rebounds plus three more steals, while Hupp hit 7 of 10 free throws to reach 11 points that went with seven rebounds.
Platte County shot 34 free throws but made only half, still doing enough at the line to overcome eight Fort Osage 3-pointers. The Indians shot just eight free throws, committed 24 turnovers and grabbed only seven offensive rebounds.
