Peyton Kramer could not be stopped inside on Friday as he run up 34 points to help North Platte St. Pat’s beat Perkins County 73-52 at the McGahan Activities Center.

Neither team got much of an advantage over the other in the first half. St. Pat’s (5-6) went up 28-23 with three minutes left in the first half when Ben Hankla made a three-pointer to follow a basket by Jaxon Braithwait.

Alex Cole scored the next bucket for Perkins County (5-6). The Irish scored the next three on a Hankla basket and a Kramer free throw before Colton Kroeker scored the last basket of the half for the Plainsmen, making it 31-27 at halftime.

“The entire first half it looked like (Perkins County) was a step quicker than us,” St. Pat’s Head Coach Bill O’Malley said. “They neutralized us offensively and defensively, we couldn’t stay in front of them. I felt like we should’ve performed better and I challenged the guys at halftime and I thought they played a lot better in the second half.”

The second half began with Kramer stealing the inbound pass from Myles Bishop in front of the basket and laying it in as he was fouled. Kramer made the free throw to complete the three-point play. Bishop scored the next two points for Perkins County but St. Pat’s scored the next six with Kramer scoring two more baskets and Ben Heirigs getting the other to put the Irish up double figures for the first time at 40-29.

“I think our guys are aware they are capable of playing great defense and we didn’t do that in the first half,” O’Malley said. “I thought we improved on that and we got some deflections in the second half.”

From there, the Irish couldn’t be stopped as they honed in on shots from within 15 feet and converted under pressure. It was 56-41 going into the fourth and St. Pat’s pushed the lead up to over 20 points in the fourth to finish it off.

“I thought we did a good job of getting it in tight,” O’Malley said. “They have a legitimate shot blocker in there (Bishop) and he got us a couple of times but for the most part, we got an upfake and attacked the rim.”

Next, the Irish will host Cozad (11-1) on Saturday. Cozad suffered their first loss of the season Friday against undefeated Ogallala.

Score by quarters:

Perkins County: 13-14-14-11 – 52

St. Pat’s: 15-16-25-17 – 73

Perkins County (52)-Ethan Swesey 14, Colton Kroeker 6, Rylee Schrotberger 11, Cade Kroeker 9, Myles Bishop 6, Alex Cole 6

St. Pat’s (73)-Ben Heirigs 16, Ben Hankla 5, Trey Furmanski 3, Jaxon Braithwait 5, Elijah Heimann 10, Peyton Kramer 34

Free throws: PC 0-0, SP 2-3; Three-point goals: PC 6 (Swesey 4, Schrotberger, Ca. Kroeker), SP 5 (Heirigs 2, Hankla, Furmanski, Braithwait)

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