Pirates rebound from foul-plagued battle
Lee Stubbs
Citizen Editor
There were two notable differences between Platte County’s game Jan. 27 versus Kearney and Jan. 30 versus Excelsior Springs. For starters, the Pirates suffered a hard-to-swallow loss to Kearney and then nearly doubled up Excelsior in a win Monday night in Platte City.
Just as notable was the free throw shooting — in the Kearney game, the two teams were whistled for 52 personal fouls and shot a combined 69 free throws in the Bulldogs’ 58-56 victory. In the Pirates’ 71-39 runaway win over Excelsior, just 28 free throws were shot between the two teams.
At any rate, Monday’s win pushed the Pirates to 12-8 on the season and provided a tonic to wash away the taste of last Friday’s setback to their bitter rival.
“We did bounce back well against Excelsior,” Platte County head coach Rick Hodge said. “It was hard to get our running game going in the first half because we didn't make stops and get the rebound. We wanted to get our transition game going, but you have to solidify the rebound first. When we did that in the second half, we were able to increase the spread.”
Platte County, which led Excelsior 38-23 at halftime, got 17 points from Jaron Rollins, 16 points from Naron Rollins and 10 points from Trevor Myers. The Pirates return to action Feb. 3 when they host Belton. They also play at home Feb. 7 versus Oak Park.
Back to the Kearney game, where the Pirates were hoping to avenge a loss to the Bulldogs in Kearney early in the season.
The game was low-scoring and featured a start-stop pace fueled by a constant symphony of officials’ whistles. Kearney led 17-15 after one period, 27-25 at halftime and 41-34 after three. The Bulldogs used a 10-4 run to build a 51-38 lead midway through the fourth period before Platte County mustered a rally. Threes by Myers and Ben Mathews and 10 points from Jaron Rollins tied the game at 56 with less than a minute to play. Then one last foul call — the 52nd of the game — sent Kearney’s Jason Prewitt to the line with four seconds to play. He sank both charity shots and Jaron Rollins’ last-second heave from just inside the half-court line rattled off the rim.
Hodge said it was hard for either team to get in any rhythm offensively. “Yeah… a lot of fouls and a lot of free throw shooting,” he said. “We continue to talk to our kids about adjusting to the way the game is being officiated. If it’s being called tight, you can not play with your hands as much and concentrate on your feet. They called a lot of fouls, but it was called the same way on both ends. We again dug ourselves in a hole and had to battle back and came up a little short.”
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