Plainsmen boys end season with thrilling district competition
By Emmalee Parsley Stevens
Grant Tribune-Sentinel
Perkins County Boys Basketball came to end this week as they played their last three games.
First they played the Hershey Panthers. Next they played the Kimball Longhorns.
Lastly, the Plainsmen played the Exeter Milligan-Friend Bobcats.
HERSHEY
On February 25, the Plainsmen Boys played the Hershey Panthers. The boys hit the cort hot right away. They scored twenty-nine points in quarter one. Senior Maddox Lee scored thirteen points. In the second quarter, Plainsmen scored nineteen points, bringing the score to 48-29 with Perkins County in the lead. They then scored twenty-three points in the third quarter, where Senior Landon Noyes scored ten points. To win the game, they scored seventeen points in quarter four. Coach Corey Potts says, “We all showed up to the gym with a lot of nerves yesterday, sub-district time is a whole new monster tied with playing a team for the third time in a season. Once the jump ball was thrown, I think we all took a deep breath and settled in. The boys got off to a fast start and really attacked the rim offensively to break a commanding lead early. We also rebounded really well on both ends of the floor, I don’t know how many offensive rebounds we had yet but I won’t be surprised if it’s a bigger number than what I have in my head. We really settled in and played well as a team. Have some things we need to clean up defensively that Hershey exposed but overall, it was a great performance from the whole team.”
KIMBALL
The Plainsmen then faced the Kimball Longhorns on February 27. The game was intense throughout. In the first quarter, the Plainsmen managed ten points, with the Longhorns being two points ahead. The Plainsmen fought to earn twenty-two points in the second quarter, which gave them the lead. Eighteen points were scored in quarter three. In the last quarter, the Longhorns pushed to try to catch up with the Plainsmen by scoring twenty-eight points.
However the Plainsmen’s drive won them the game by one point. The final score was 65-64. Potts says, “We finished sub-districts off with a real nail biter down the stretch! We got off to a slow start offensively, which I attribute to nerves, but our defense kept the game close. The second quarter we settled in and the boys really clicked offensively. The entire second half we held a comfortable lead until about 2:30 left in the game. Kimball pressured us full court and the pressure of winning nearly swallowed us whole but in the end we had done enough before those final minutes to capture the win. We knew this was a pretty even match-up of talent and effort with us having a slight edge in athleticism and depth. I told the boys before the game that fundamentals and the little things would be key to controlling this game and ultimately defense would determine the winner. Hats off to Kimball because they nearly came from behind to take it with their defense in those last couple of minutes. The boys did enough over the course of the game to hold them off at the end, really excited and proud of the boys.”
EXETER-MILLIGAN/FRIEND
The Perkins County Plainsmen ended their season with a tough district final game against Exeter-Milligan/Friend Bobcats. In the first quarter, the Bobcats made the first basket of the game, however, the Plainsmen did not back down.
Senior, Ryder Potts, immediately scored 2 points back. Plainsmen Scored twenty-five in the first quarter, with Potts scoring ten points. Quarter two was slightly slower. The Plainsmen added six points to their total, making the score at halftime 31-38 with Bobcats in the lead.
In the third quarter Bobcats pulled farther ahead. Plainsmen scored eleven points and Potts scored six. In the fourth quarter, the Plainsmen fought to take the lead, scoring sixteen points.
Unfortunately it was not enough to surpass the Bobcats who outscored the Plainsmen by sixteen points in the end. The final score was 74-58.
Coach Potts says “I felt like we got the best match up we could have for C2 basketball, though I didn’t know much about them until shortly after we won the Kimball subdistrict final. We started really fast in the first quarter and I think stunned them a little bit with our speed.
They made the adjustment in the second quarter to take away our transition and slow us down which took the wind out of our sails a little bit. The boys never gave up and fought to a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter but it seemed like every time we started a charge back or made a run they had an answer. I am just really proud of the boys and the season they had. Every kid on that team showed up and worked hard with no complaints….EVER. It is a great group of kids!”
NEXT YEAR
Next year Potts plans to remain head coach for the Perkins County Boys Basketball Team. He says “
Next year we get some returning varsity experience but those that did not get varsity experience had to practice every day against the kids who led to the team’s success. We have a lot of talented basketball players coming back along with a strong group coming in from Junior High. I know these kids will put time in this summer on their own and we will also work as a team this offseason to make sure we are ready for another thrilling season.”