Platte County uses 4th quarter offense to pull away for blowout win in opener

Minute after minute of aggressive, hustling defense continued to produce results. Eventually, the offense found footing and took advantage.

Platte County certainly didn’t ease all the concerns about offensive consistency in Tuesday’s season-opener, but the results were encouraging for first-year coach Eric Mitchell and his deployment of a roster of experienced pieces. The Pirates held Savannah without a field goal for the entire second half and pulled away for a 36-13 blowout victory at Platte County High School. The Savages managed just three total made shots from the floor, while also shooting just 7-for-17 on free throws.

This marked the first win in a season-opener for Platte County since 2017-18.

“That’s kind of been where we’re at currently. We’re just kind of getting there,” said Mitchell, a longtime assistant across multiple sports but a first-time head coach. “We’re not quite there offensively so we’re trying to stay into things defensively to give us opportunities to convert on offense and hopefully get a chance to win a ballgame.

“Our coaching staff has done a tremendous job of trying to build that into our culture of not giving up and playing hard.”

Platte County sophomore forward Lauren Stone started and scored all of her team-high nine points in the first half, while junior guard Lydia Doole added seven in the second half. The Pirates put up half of their points in the fourth quarter, turning a potentially tenuous 18-11 lead into a runaway.

Doole capped the run with a banked in 3-pointer, and Platte County senior guard Morgan Stewart — a frequent starter the past two years now coming off the bench — nailed another trey late. The Pirates used 11 different players in Mitchell’s debut, and eight of them scored.

Most importantly, all contributed to the relentless defensive effort, even as some pressure might have built up as the players realized the field goal drought for Savannah remained intact during the second half.

“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” said Platte County senior forward Joslyn Hupp, a third-year starter who scored four points. “You don’t really feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t let them score,’ but I don’t know, just knowing we did that is pretty awesome.”

Platte County (1-0) entered the season minus a pair of key starters with Mitchell taking over for departed head coach Rebecca Strobbe, who resigned following her third straight losing season. The Pirates’ already looked different with Stone inserted into the starting five and showing her versatility, while Doole, Hupp, senior forward Reese Pickett (five points) and sophomore Haley Barlow (three points) the other familiar faces to open the game.

However, Platte County also went deep into the roster with senior Mackenzie Shields keeping her role as a bench contributor, while adding in junior guard Delaney Childers (two points) and sophomore forwards Addy Schlake (two points) and Haley Schank. The Pirates also gave freshman guard Addie Ayers minutes in the second half. The Pirates occasionally rushed shots rather than taking longer possessions to find a better look but also missed some makable looks.

“We’ve got to clarify some roles in terms of shot selection and when to shoot and who should be taking a bulk of those shots,” Mitchell said.

Platte County never trailed but certainly relied on the defense earlier. The Pirates’ first points came when Hupp split a pair of free throws with 5 minutes, 42 seconds left in the first quarter on a possession resulting from an administrative technical on Savannah for inserting a player into the game who wasn’t on the scorebook.

Doole missed both of the resulting free throws, but Hupp drew a shooting foul and converted one of hers to make it 1-0.

Savannah went the first 4 1/2 minutes without scoring and trailed 7-3 after the first quarter. Stone scored four in the opening 8 minutes, but the Savages’ second of two field goals drew them within 9-5 in the second quarter. Pickett’s runner from the right baseline and Stone’s 3-pointer from the left wing quickly increased the lead to nine and forced a timeout with 4:13 left before the half.

“We talked about tonight after the game about getting excited,” Mitchell said. “Winning’s hard and being excited when we do work our tails off in practice and in a game to take home a victory that we need to be excited about that and celebrate it.”

Savannah closed the deficit to 16-10 at halftime would score only three more points. After going 4 of 10 on free throws in the first half, the Savages were just 3 of 7 at the line after halftime and were not able to take advantage of Platte County’s offensive woes. The Pirates’ lone points in the third quarter came on a backdoor layup for Doole on an inbounds play.

Yet, Platte County’s lead increased to 18-11 with Savannah managing just one point.

Barlow’s scoop layup to open the fourth quarter re-established a nine-point lead, but she missed the free throw after drawing a foul on the play. That prevented the Pirates from taking a double-digit lead until Doole’s two free throws with 4:01 left.

After a turnover, Hupp — Platte County’s leading scorer a year ago — hit a short jumper for her first field goal to make it 25-12. Pickett then followed Doole’s 3 with a putback to increase the lead to 30-13, and Mitchell essentially emptied his bench from there.

“We got a lot of good looks. We just didn’t finish well tonight,” Mitchell said. “You get a little later in the game, and sometimes they get a little fatigued. I’ll give them credit. They play hard. They played hard on the defensive end as well, and it was just a solid low-scoring defensive basketball game tonight.”

Platte County next starts play in the Cardinal Division of the Winnetonka Invitational at 5:30 p.m. Monday against Central (St. Joseph). The winner advances to play in Wednesday’s semifinal, while the consolation semifinals will be Tuesday. The consolation place games are scheduled for Thursday with the championship and third-place game Friday. The Pirates will likely continue to fine-tune rotations, especially while determining the best options to replace the production lost from Kiersten Robbins and Amaira Peterson from the past two seasons.

“A win is a win no matter what it looks like. The energy you get from winning is incredible especially if you can keep that momentum going into your next games,” Hupp said.