By TOMMY REZAC and MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
DEARBORN - Mid-Buchanan built a comfortable 26-8 halftime lead and held off a late charge from West Platte to win the KCI tournament championship, 61-51, on Saturday evening at North Platte High School.
It marks three consecutive KCI tournament crowns for the Dragons, who are off to a 5-1 start in the 2021-22 campaign.
It's a team that returns four players from last season's squad that went 21-6 and won a Class 2 District 15 title, but it's also a team that has eight players seeing their first time on varsity this winter.
"I mean, we've played in this game awhile," Mid Buchanan boys' coach Bryce Kemper said. "But, not many of (our younger players) have. So, we were kind of wondering how they would react, and I thought they came out and didn't play with a lot of fear and got after it. So, I was really proud of them."
Mid-Buchanan scored 18 of their 26 first half points in the second quarter, but West Platte started the third quarter on a 9-5 run to pull within 31-17.
Still, the Dragons continued to shoot it well, and led 43-23 entering the fourth.
The Bluejays (4-2) reeled off a 21-9 run midway in the fourth, and got back to within eight points at 52-44, but Mid-Buchanan held on to win by 10.
Kemper says his team seemed a little tired late in the second half and turned the ball over some, but he also credits West Platte for just making more shots than they had early on.
The Bluejays scored 43 in the second half compared just to just eight in the first.
"They didn't hit like they normally hit in the second half," Kemper said of West Platte. "They stared to in that fourth quarter. So, some of that was them, too."
Caiden Bailey led the Dragons with 19 points, while Joe Clark and Rawlins Brant each scored 11.
"We all played hard and they ran in transition, really," said Clark on the performance of his teammates. "They played hard on defense and they contributed to our offense a lot."
Mason Montez and Tanner Rowe led West Platte with 13 points each. Trent Taylor added nine.
The Mid Buchanan girls also claimed a KCI tournament title Saturday with a 56-40 win over Lathrop.
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ, Matt @KFEQMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.