On Jan. 30, 2016, the North Platte Panthers boys basketball team slayed the Mid-Buchanan Dragons to win the North Platte Invitational.
Just a day after the 10-year anniversary of the Panthers’ 2016 title, the Panthers finally reclaimed the tournament title. Little did they know it would take a decade of heartache before they returned to that summit.
Just like last time, they did so by defeating Mid-Buchanan in a tight championship game, this time by a score of 65-62 in a game the Panthers never trailed. Perhaps the most notable difference was that Braydn Kemper found himself on the winning side.
Kemper, who now serves as North Platte’s head coach, was on the losing side a decade ago as a senior for Mid-Buchanan. During his time as a Dragon, Kemper was a member of the Class 2 state runner-up team his junior year, the same year he helped Mid-Buchanan win the 2015 North Platte Invitational.
Mid-Buchanan has remained a constant threat over the years and is among the favorites to compete for a state title this year, most recently ranked No. 2 in Class 3 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll released on Jan. 26. Kemper helped defeat his alma mater to break the Panthers’ decade-long North Platte Invitational drought on Jan. 31.
North Platte senior Brenden Matt opened the game with a four-point play after getting fouled on a 3-point shot. He was named as the tournament’s MVP.
As expected, both offenses came out ready to fly in the championship game. The early signs were optimistic for North Platte as senior star Brenden Matt hit a triple out of the gate, which turned into a four-point play after getting fouled and making the free throw.
While North Platte eventually built an early 8-3 lead, Mid-Buchanan displayed just how lethal they are from deep. They hit four triples in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beater from midcourt to tie it up 15-15.
North Platte’s biggest frame of the day came in the second quarter, when they created some separation. Matt hit a couple more 3-pointers to build the Panthers’ lead to double-digits until Mid-Buchanan got back into the game as the Panthers held a 29-22 lead at halftime.
Mid-Buchanan cut the deficit down to a one-score possession, but North Platte responded well as a pair of baskets from Dylan Armstrong and Jase Smith’s second triple of the afternoon extended North Platte’s lead to 36-28. The Dragons slowly cut into the lead again as an offensive foul from Matt sent North Platte’s leading scorer to the bench with four fouls for the last 50 seconds of the third quarter, as the Panthers led 41-39 going to the fourth.
“My coaching philosophy is if your best player’s got four (fouls), what good does it do him sitting on the bench?” Kemper said. “He’s basically fouled out that way, anyway. We kept him out there, trusted that he would play hard still and make the right decisions, and he did.”
Matt immediately returned to the floor to start the fourth with some minor adjustments, a decision North Platte would not regret. After Mid-Buchanan tied it for the first time since the first quarter, Matt stepped forward to nail another 3-pointer, although the Dragons answered with a triple of their own.
North Platte senior Dylan Armstrong scored his 1,000th career point in the championship game, helping the Panthers close out the title with 15 points.
The rest of the way, the Panther trio of Armstrong, Hunter Palmer and Isaac Wright supplied the scoring. Armstrong, who passed 1,000 career points, gave North Platte a lead they would never let up.
Mid-Buchanan managed to get back within a score in the final 40 seconds, but Wright answered for the Panthers as he converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 32 seconds left after breaking the full-court press. A Mid-Buchanan 3-pointer and North Platte turnover gave the Dragons a lifeline down 64-62, but they missed a pair of baskets at the rim.
Still, Mid-Buchanan had one final opportunity on an in-bounds play with 2.3 seconds left. After taking a pair of timeouts, Mid-Buchanan turned the ball over as Palmer read the pass to the corner to seal North Platte’s title, adding a free throw to make it 65-62.
“It means a lot for us,” Matt said of breaking the title drought. “We haven’t won anything since I’ve been in high school. It’s been pretty uneventful, but we’re going to turn that around this year.”
The victory was North Platte’s latest — and perhaps biggest — statement of intent against a program Kemper still has a lot of respect for. The Panthers made it to the championship game after defeating Mound City 80-58 on Jan. 27 and defeating Jefferson (Conception) 87-48 on Jan. 29.
North Platte’s triumph over Mid-Buchanan was also a way to get revenge after the Panthers lost to the Dragons 55-51 on home court the previous week. It ended North Platte’s perfect conference record.
“It was heartbreaking; it was probably the conference championship,” Matt said. “It felt good to come back and beat them this time. We’ve grown as a team since then and played a lot better tonight.”
Matt scored 25 points in the championship game, earning recognition as the 2026 North Platte Invitational MVP and headlining the all-tournament team, which also included Armstrong and Smith. West Platte, who finished fifth in the tournament with a 2-1 record, had Drake Montez also named to the all-tournament team.
Kemper has made it a point to treat regular-season tournaments as if they were postseason play. Now in his fifth season leading the Panthers, he has seen his team take advantage of these opportunities.
“That’s kind of what my goal was when we got here,” Kemper said. “Build this program so we’re competing all the time and playing competition to get us ready for districts.”
The Panthers previously finished third in the KCI Conference Tournament and had a good showing in a challenging Kearney Classic with defeats to Kearney and Platte County before a victory against St. Pius X.
Since 2016, the only other tournament the Panthers had won was the 2023 Osborn Invitational in Stewartsville.
Now, the Panthers hope their most recent title will serve as the catalyst for more first-place plaques to come, with the most important competition beginning in late February at districts.