By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Neither team scored a point in the fourth quarter until there was 2:04 left in the game.
Fortunately for Bishop LeBlond, they had built themselves a 10-point lead by that point.
That was enough for the Golden Eagles (15-2), ranked No. 9 in Class 3, to fend off North Platte, 40-28, in a girls' basketball contest on Wednesday night at Grace Gymnasium in St. Joseph.
Turnovers were North Platte's demise throughout, as the Panthers (16-4), ranked No. 9 in Class 2, had 19 giveaways unofficially.
North Platte's defense turned the pressure up in the second half, and turned LeBlond over 18 times, but the Golden Eagles made eight three-pointers and won most of the rebounding battles to atone for that.
"North Platte is ranked for a reason," LeBlond head coach Jackie Steltenpohl said. "They're a physical team and can shoot and light it up. We tried to focus defensively on shutting them down and hoping that our offensive game would light up at some point."
"We had some good runs and streaks of getting some offense going. Luckily enough, we were able to keep a decent lead and play comfortably."
LeBlond was also a sound 8-of-11 at the free throw line. North Platte was just 4-of-15.
The Panthers, despite their troubles, kept the game from getting completely out of hand, and got to within single digits late in the fourth, but LeBlond's Kayla Beam nailed two open three-pointers in the final two minutes to put it out of reach.
Beam finished with nine points, while Kyla Conard scored a game-high 17.
Kenedie Summers led North Platte with nine points. Brianna DeBord tallied eight.
The win Wednesday was LeBlond's fifth straight, as the Golden Eagles were coming off of a Richmond Winter Classic championship this past weekend.
LeBlond has a busy road ahead before districts, as they'll play eight more regular season games - all by February 15. They start by going to Savannah on Friday for a 6 p.m. game.
"Our girls have to be physically and mentally ready," Steltenpohl said. "It's something where going to have to draw even closer together as a team and have that chemistry click right now."
North Platte will be at Plattsburg on Friday at 6 p.m.
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.