Plainsmen finish fifth in SPVA

After falling to the eventual  SPVA champion in the first round of the SPVA tournament, The Perkins County Plainsmen came back Saturday to defeat the Sutherland Sailors to finish fifth. 

The fifth-seeded Plainsmen opened the conference tournament at the fourth-seeded North Platte St. Pat’s Jan. 18. 

The game was just 10 days removed from when the Plainsmen traveled to St. Pat’s for regular season action. 

The outcome wasn’t much different from their first meeting, with the Plainsmen falling  69-32.

While the Irish came in as the No. 4 seed, Plainsmen Head Coach Shawn Cole felt they were the best team in the tournament, despite their middle-of-the pack seeding. 

Cole said his team performed well against St. Pat’s, despite the loss. 

He said they used that momentum to come back Saturday and defeat Sutherland in the fifth place game, 52-36. 

It was a rematch of the two teams who met at Sutherland Jan. 9, a game the Plainsmen won that contest 65-35.

Coming off the loss to St. Pat’s in SPVA action, the Plainsmen had played seven games in 10 days, Cole said. 

As a result, he gave them a day off Tuesday to get ready for Saturday’s rematch. 

After a slow first quarter, trailing the Sailors 8-6, the Plainsmen took a 16-13 lead into halftime. 

The Sailors made some changes going into the game to handle the Plainsmen’s press. 

However, those changes didn’t work quite as well in the second half as Cole’s crew began more trapping in the front court. 

In the second half, the Plainsmen came up with 13 steals, converting them into 20 of their 36 second-half points.
Sutherland came back from just eight points in the third to score 15 in the final frame but were never able to cut into the margin by anymore than 11. 

Triston Hite led the team both in scoring with 17 points and steals with four.

Another busy week

The Plainsmen picked up two games this week with Colorado schools—Holyoke here Tuesday and Sedgwick County here Thursday.

On Monday, Feb. 1., the teams travel to Kimball to make up a game postponed to COVID-19 in early December.

Then, on Tuesday, they play host to Maxwell. 

Jayvee games with Sedgwick County start at 4:15 p.m. Jayvees at Kimball and here against Maxwell start at 4 p.m.

This marks the first game for Holyoke as Colorado has just allowed the high school basketball season to begin.