Plainsmen make it three in a row
By Russ Pankonin
Grant Tribune-Sentinel
With just one regular season game left, the Perkins County Plainsmen won their third game in a row last week, defeating Creek Valley 63-38.
That improves the Plainsmen’s record to 6-14 after wins over Maxwell and South Platte.
Coach Shawn Cole said stringing three wins together is huge at this point in the season. It’s a good confidence booster, he added, as they travel to Bridgeport Friday to face the 18-4 Bulldogs.
Then, next Tuesday, subdistrict play begins in McCook.
Creek Valley
In what has unfortunately become somewhat of a pattern, the Plainsmen found themselves down early again, trailing 9-2 with half the quarter gone.
Cole said when his team plays aggressive defense, and hits the boards hard and gets steals, their offense gets better.
For some reason, playing good defense makes a huge impact on offense for this group of kids.
The defense shifted gears from there, shut down Creek Valley, allowing just one more bucket in the quarter.
With the defense spurring on the offense, Cole’s crew put together a 11-2 run with four different players getting on the board to take a 13-11 lead after one quarter of play.
From there on, the offense put up double figures each of the next three quarters and never trailed the rest of the way.
Triston Hite started feeling it outside the 3-point line, opening the second quarter with a 3-ball. Hunter Garner added another 3-ball for the Plainsmen’s second bucket.
Hite added one more basket with a short jumper in the paint off an assist by Alex Poppe for a 30-17 lead.
Creek Valley rallied for seven before half to stay within 10, 34-24, as the Plainsmen put up 21 in the second quarter.
Nine points would prove to be the closest Creek Valley would come, after hitting a trey ball at the 5:00 mark to make the score 38-29.
From there on, the Plainsmen owned the game, going on a 14-0 run to finish off an 18-point third quarter.
The Plainsmen put another 11 points on the board in the fourth, while holding Creek Valley to single digits with nine.
With a lot of shots coming in or near the paint, the Plainsmen finished the night 23 of 34 for 68%. They were 4 of 14 outside the arc for 29%.
At the other end, Creek Valley was 13 for 36 for 36% inside the arc and only 2 of 14 outside the arc for 14%.
Three players finished in double figures with Hite leading the way with 18, Garner with 17 and Hayden Foster with 14.
Subdistricts Tuesday
Jayvee action at Bridgeport begins at 4 p.m. with only two quarters to be played.
The Plainsmen open subdistrict play at McCook High School next Tuesday.
Fourth-seeded Perkins County will open against top seeded Dundy County Stratton, 17-4. Game time is set for 5 p.m. MT.
Cole feels really good about their matchup with DCS. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Hitchcock County/Sutherland game Thursday at 6 p.m. MT. The winner of that game advances to the 16-team district finals to determine the eight qualifiers for the state tournament.