Pirate
girls win one, lose one
by Ted
Brewer
Landmark
reporter
The Lady Pirates traveled to Excelsior Springs to pick
up a hard fought victory over the Tigers, back on Wednesday,
Jan. 2. The Lady Pirates were able to defeat Excelsior
Springs 52-37.
The Lady Pirates jumped out to an early lead over the
Tigers with an 8-7 first quarter lead.
In the second quarter, Platte County outscored Excelsior
Springs 10-8, and took an 18-15 point lead into halftime.
The Lady Pirates pulled away from Excelsior Springs in
the third quarter when they outscored the Tigers 22-9.
This gave the Lady Pirates a 40-24 lead as the game entered
the fourth quarter.
Platte County was able to clinch their victory in the
fourth quarter. Despite being outscored 13-12, the Lady
Pirates held off the Tigers and won 52-37.
Junior Tara Porter had 18 points on the night, and 11
of those points came in the third quarter. Junior Cassie
Philipi dominated the inside, where she scored 11 points,
and she hit 5/7 from the free throw line. Senior Megan
Nichols had nine points on the night, and sophomore Stevie
Grabau contributed six points. Freshman Kathryn McGee
was able to get most of her points off of steals that
led to fast break lay-ups.
Philipi led the team with nine rebounds, followed by
Nichols with eight, and Grabau with four.
“We dominated in all phases of the game and kept
the pressure on the Tigers on defense to secure the win,”
said head coach Kathy Hatfield.
On, Friday, Jan. 4, the Lady Pirates headed up to Chillicothe
with hopes of receiving a MEC Conference victory, but
that would not be the case as Chillicothe was victorious
by a score of 39-28. Both teams struggled to make baskets
the entire game.
The Lady Pirates played them close in the first quarter
and were able to get some steals using their press defense,
but they were not able to convert many of the shots. The
score at the end of the first quarter was even at 6-6.
In the second quarter, starting guard McGee got into
foul trouble and had to be taken out, breaking up the
momentum of the team.
The other guards began to get tired in the third quarter,
but they were still a little reluctant to play McGee with
her three fouls.
McGee ended up back in the game in the fourth quarter,
when Chillicothe had begun to pull away with a three-point
lead with three minutes to go in the game. The Lady Pirates
were forced to foul in the fourth quarter to try and catch
Chillicothe. Although Chillicothe made only two baskets
all quarter, they shot 8 of 13 from the foul line.
“We let them get into the nice position of having
the lead with minutes to go and forced us to foul to stop
the clock,” Hatfield said. “We couldn’t
buy a basket in the fourth quarter and were only 2 of
8 from the line in the quarter as well.
The Lady Pirates did lose by a final score of 39-28.
“We had plenty of chances but just didn’t get
the job done,” said Hatfield. “It’s definitely
a game that we could have won."
The next action for the Lady Pirates comes in the Kearney
Tournament. The tournament lasts from Jan. 7-12, at Kearney,
and is for the varsity only. There is a chance that Platte
County will see Chillicothe again during the tournament.
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