KEARNEY – No girls’ basketball season in the last 15 years was as successful as this one was for Platte County (21-5), yet the Lady Pirates walked off the court one final time short of their goals.
Taking on fourth-seeded Kearney (8-18) in the Class 5 District 8 Semifinals at Kearney High School, Platte County fell behind as much as 13 points and fought back to tie it before being eliminated. The Lady Pirates’ best season in ages ended with a 37-33 loss on March 1.
The only regular season matchup between these teams saw a similar score with the same point differential and a different outcome: a 38-34 Platte County win on Jan. 25. In the district matchup, Lydia Doole opened the contest with a 3-pointer, but the Lady Bulldogs answered with two of their own and took a quick 9-5 lead.
Addy Schlake and Rylee Carr both scored a layup towards the end of the opening frame, bringing the score to 12-10 when the buzzer sounded. Kearney’s zone defense resulted in a prominent second quarter for the home team and the top-seed trailed 18-10 halfway through the district semifinals.
Schlake scored a third-quarter bucket to end what was nearly a 10-minute Platte County scoring drought dating back to the first half. Kearney sophomore guard Brooke Paalhar had the best scoring performance of her high school career with 19 points and one of her three made shots from behind the arc pushed the margin to 13 points roughly three minutes into the second half.
Lauren Stone responded with a layup on the other end to ignite a 9-2 run. The end of that Platte County scoring burst saw another made triple by Doole to make the score 27-21 with 1:13 until the fourth quarter began, but Addie Taylor banked in a three on the other side at the buzzer.
Trailing by nine points into the final quarter of postseason play, Doole connected with a shot from behind the arc and Stone drove in for a layup to make it a four-point game. With 3:52 on the clock, Schlake put up a miss, drew the foul and converted on the three-point opportunity, and the scoreboard read 30-28.
After Kearney added a free throw, Carr came up clutch, knocking down a 3-pointer to tie the contest at 31 with 2:14 to play in regulation. About a minute later, Paalhar was rewarded three free throws after being fouled on a jump shot and made all three attempts.
The next score was a putback layup by Carr with 11.9 seconds remaining, followed by Paalhar splitting a pair of free throws. With 9.7 seconds on the clock, Platte County decided to roll in the ball on the inbounds play, but Kearney came away with a crucial steal and Taylor added two more free throws to ice the game.
It was a heartbreaking ending to the season for Platte County, which won at least 20 games for the first time since 2010 and finished with the best winning percentage since 2009. In the last 15 years, the Lady Pirates never won more than eight home games until this year when they posted an impressive 10-1 record at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Defensively, Platte County held opponents to 32.2 points per game, which is the best mark in more than 15 years. Doole and Delaney Childers are the only seniors for the Lady Pirates as they will return an experienced squad of girls next season.