Platte County splits pair of conference games while continuing quest for continuity

Platte County continues to show almost equal parts potential and frustration, but clearly, the fight remains for a roster forging ahead together. On Friday night, the Pirates avenged a prior loss behind the high-scoring trio of seniors Jaden Peterson and Anthony Morrison and junior point guard Jayden Martin just three days after dropping an almost immediate rematch with another familiar opponent.

Both matchups came in Suburban Conference White Division play.

The 74-67 victory over Ruskin in Kansas City fully displayed the ongoing improvement with Peterson, the versatile 6-foot-6 forward, totaling 21 points after a slow start. Platte County improved to 9-11 overall, having won four of the past seven, but the biggest sign of optimism might come from the play of Morrison, who spent much of this season trying to regain the form from his breakout junior season. He hit three 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 17 points.

“You’re hoping Anthony gets going,” Platte County coach Rick Hodge said. “Anthony’s a big part of our success of late.”

Just three days earlier, Fort Osage came to Pirate Fieldhouse and pulled away for a 64-52 victory in back-to-back meetings between the two teams.

This undid some of the positive takeaways from when Platte County held on for a four-point win over the Indians the prior Friday in the third-place game of the Grain Valley Invitational. The Pirates were unable to create a true second-half charge in the second half of the rematch, briefly pulling within five midway through the third quarter but trailing by double digits for most of the remainder.

Fort Osage switched up the defense after the tightly contest 62-58 loss in tournament play.

“They packed it in a lot more on the inside,” Hodge said. “The thing that’s been working well for us lately is shooting percentages have been going up. We’ve had guy guys hitting shots, moving the ball, sharing the ball. We didn’t hit shots today, even with some good looks.”

Fort Osage came out of halftime with a 30-24 lead and immediately scored on the next two possessions with a 3-pointer from senior guard Dylan Ball stretching the advantage to a game-best 11 at that point.

Platte County answered with five straight, and junior guard Brennan McLaughlin’s basket spinning to the hoop in what ended up being the final significant push for the Pirates. The Indians responded with a 7-0 run capped with a driving tomahawk dunk from senior forward Isaac Woodward, who finished with 20 points and collected the 1,000th of a decorate career in the process.

Peterson stopped the stretch with a high-arcing 3-pointer. At that point, Platte County’s leading scorer had just seven points, but he hit two more triples in the fourth quarter on the way to a team-high 18. The Pirates didn’t have anyone else in double figures with Morrison and McLaughlin adding eight apiece and senior forward Hayden Schultz finishing with seven.

“Last time we played them, we found mismatches,” Hodge said. “I think we found those mismatches again but were hesitant going at them.”

After Peterson’s 3-pointer with 43 seconds left in the third quarter, Platte County held possession with a chance to draw even closer. The Pirates misfired on three shots and went into the fourth down 44-34.

Woodward converted a three-point play to push Fort Osage’s advantage to 54-39. Peterson scored the next five, including a pull-up 3-pointer from the left wing with 3:33 remaining in regulation, but the Indians again kept Platte County from pulling within single digits.

Fort Osage dominated scoring in the paint behind Woodward’s strong play but also hit two of five 3-pointers early in the first quarter to race out to a 10-4 lead in the first quarter.

Morrison, who has started three straight games with junior guard Braiden Stevens having dealt with a combination of illness and an ankle injury, led a stretch of eight unanswered points for Platte County. Morrison hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3:08 left in the first quarter to give the Pirates their only lead at 12-10, moments after he drove to the lane for a contested bucket and drew a foul, going on to convert the three-point play.

Morrison and McLaughlin scored six apiece in the first half , while Schultz put up five during the slow start to the third quarter with buckets on back-to-back possessions to help keep Platte County within striking distance. The Pirates ended up with seven total scorers with junior forward Jack Utz adding four points and Martin and Stevens, playing limited minutes after rolling his ankle in practice the day before, adding two apiece.

“I think we had guys taking the right shots, and we didn’t hit some shots to get going, to get our home crowd going, to feed off momentum,” Hodge said. “That’s usually what we do. We kept waiting, just waiting for that run to start.”

Stevens, Platte County’s second-leading scorer on the season, didn’t play at all against Ruskin. The Pirates still found a way to reverse the result of a frustrating 57-50 loss at home in December in the first meeting between the two teams this season.

Platte County improved to 3-5 in conference play after Morrison, Schultz and Peterson combined for five 3-pointers in the first half to help build a 33-28 lead. Morrison put up 15 of his points in the first half, while Schultz’s triple in the first quarter accounted for his only offensive production.

After going scoreless in the first quarter, Peterson put up seven points before halftime before carrying Platte County through a dominant second half. The Pirates were up double figures going into the fourth quarter, and Martin went 10 of 11 on free throws overall, including 7 of 8 in the final 8 minutes to finish off the win.

Martin finished with 12 points.

Platte County finishes the regular season with six more conference games, starting with Tuesday’s rematch with Grain Valley at home. The Pirates also close with a road game at Fort Osage.