Lady Trojans split ugly pair of games with South

Bodies flying after loose balls, unforced turnovers leading to fouls, and coaches venting their frustrations led to an overall ugly game for both teams last weekend as the Park Hill Lady Trojans played against rival Park Hill South. With leading scorer Laura Bennett out for the season with a knee injury, the Trojans were left at a slight disadvantage to the Panthers who were just coming off an upset victory against Platte County. A back and forth game throughout, Park Hill’s Shelby Blanchard made two free throws with less than ten seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. The overtime period may have left many feeling déjà vu, as the game started to become a series of repeated unnecessary fouls, with the outcome of the game laying in the free throw shooters’ hands. South converted a majority of their opportunities while Park Hill did not, leading the Panthers to a 50-46 victory.

“We didn’t make shots. If we make shots this game isn’t even close. We missed free throws and a ton of lay-ups, they (South) didn’t. That’s the whole story of the game,” Park Hill Coach Brian Rockers said of the loss.

So concludes another unsatisfying week for the Lady Trojans, who also hit a speed bump at the North Kansas City Tournament earlier in the week when they fell to St. Joe Central and Platte County before beating Oak Park in the 7th place game. Junior Michele Rupard also suffered an injury setback with a concussion for the Trojans as she missed a series of games as well. The Trojans are now 12-9 after starting the season 5-0.

“It’s been a rough week, a lot of injuries,” Rockers said.

Asked how the injuries would affect his game strategy Rockers replied, “We’re going to have to play a lot more guards.”

Another issue Rockers wants his team to focus on is their mental approach to the game and how it applies to the foul problems they’ve been experiencing.

“We’ve been in foul trouble all year long,” Rockers said. “I’ve got some people we can’t afford to have on the bench that end up on the bench. They are very valuable to the team and it hurts us.”

The Trojans turned around on Monday and once again faced the Panthers, this time at Park Hill South. They tied the season seasons by taking their revenge with a win by a score of 49-35. They’ll finish out the season with three games starting with a Feb. 11 game at Grandview followed by games against William Chrisman for Senior Night and Winnetonka on Feb. 17 and 18.