Pirates defeat Tigers once again

BASEHOR -- In the 1990's, it seemed like Salina Central was the team that had Fort Scott's number. Whenever the Tigers and Mustangs met, no matter what sport or what the records were, Salina Central always came away with the win.

Platte County's basketball team has replaced Salina Central as Fort Scott's "jinx" team, defeating the Tigers for the third time in as many meetings in the Basehor-Linwood Bobcat Classic, this time by a 67-54 score here Thursday night.

This time Platte County came into the tournament with a losing record but made it to the semifinals by knocking off the No. 1 seed, Pembroke Hill, Monday.

The Tigers, 6-4, played well for most of the first half. They scored seven of the last nine of the first quarter to hold a 15-12 lead against the taller, quicker Pirates.

Zach Quick's "old-fashioned" three-point play gave Fort Scott it's biggest lead, 24-18, with 3:28 to go in the first half.

But Platte County, 5-9, rallied to take the lead at halftime. They didn't go to 6' 8" center Bryant Holl, as one might expect the Pirates to exploit his height advantage. Instead, the Pirates found the outside open and Garrett Beeson knocked down three three-point goals during the final three minutes, including one from 35 feet at the buzzer to put the Pirates ahead, 29-28.

Kevin Gray, who had a perfect six-of-six shooting night from the field, put the Tigers ahead again briefly as he made the first basket of the second half. But Beeson knocked in another triple to start a 10-3 run that gave Platte County some cushion.

Fort Scott got within two by the end of the period as Jeff Johnson stuck back a teammate's miss and Quick scored in transition off a Johnson steal. That cut the margin to 43-41.

Platte County's transition game and team speed proved to be the deciding factor in the fourth quarter. The Pirates scored 14 of the first 18 of the period to go up 57-45.

"When we got behind, we tried to bring the pressure up but they have a pretty fast, athletic team," Fort Scott head coach Jeff DeLaTorre said. "They did a good job of picking our pressure apart.

"It came down to a lot of things we've been struggling with on the defensive end. They kind of exploited it tonight. And we have to learn from the mistakes we made and be ready to come back Saturday."

Fort Scott shot just 40 percent from the field, making 22 of 55 field-goal attempts. Platte County connected on 61 percent of its shots on 27 of 44 and that was with Holl going just four of nine.

"We didn't shoot the ball very well and Platte County did a good job defensively on us," DeLaTorre said. "They made it very tough and they have the big kid, who we didn't force to come out of the lane. We didn't hit enough shots to bring him out. That made it awfully tough to get any penetration in the lane like we usually try to get. That made it tough and we weren't hitting outside shots."

Quick and Beeson each scored 27 points for their teams. Quick made 11 of 22 shots from the field, including two of three three-pointers. Beeson was nine of 13 from the field and four of seven from three-point range.

Gray was next for the Tigers with 12 points. Holl, Kyle Knox and Ryan Barkley had 10 points each for the Pirates.

Platte County held just a slim 28-27 rebounding advantage. Quick had seven boards for the Tigers.

Chris Banks dished four assists for Fort Scott while Gray came up with three steals.

The Tigers will play host Basehor-Linwood for third place Saturday afternoon at 4:30. Platte County will play St. Joseph-Benton for the championship Saturday at 7:30.