Park Hill takes driver's seat in conference race

After sweeping their three games last week against Lee’s Summit West, Park Hill South, and William Chrisman, the Park Hill Trojans improved to 9-3 on the season and 5-0 in conference play as they head into the Basehor-Linwood Tournament this week. With victories against all five members of the Suburban Big-Six Conference, Park Hill now holds an upper-hand and controls their own destiny in regards to obtaining their first conference championship since 2002.

In a classic rivalry matchup between in-district foes last Wednesday at home, Park Hill was able to edge out Park Hill South in overtime 69-63. The Trojans were led with another strong performance from Justin Leathers and his 27 points, which has become fairly reliable other recent weeks. Chris Nsenki added 16 and Austin Kepler posted 11 points.

Traveling to William Chrisman presented a challenging road test for the Trojans, as they played the defending conference champions last Friday night. A neck and neck battle left the score tied at 30 going into halftime, but building a ten point lead in the third quarter put the Trojans up for good as they were able to pull out the victory 72-62. It was Nsenki this time leading Park Hill as he put on a clinic with 27 points, 15 coming from behind the arc with five three-pointers along with the 13 rebounds the junior shooting guard pulled down. De’Aris Flint contributed 11 points while Leathers added another ten.

Park Hill now looks to a series of games in Basehor-Linwood’s Bobcat Invitational before traveling to St. Joe Central on January 26th to face the Indians, the only opponent Park Hill has not yet played in their district. After that, a three week stretch will lead into the district tournament starting on February 22nd. Although in first place in the conference race, Park Hill won’t be able to relax going forward as they’ll play their second round of conference games against high-quality opponents in the coming weeks. Fortunately for the Trojans, two of the three key matchups will be at home against Truman and William Chrisman while their anticipated rematch against the Panthers will be played at Park Hill South on February 9th.