Lady Trojans advance to semi's

It wasn’t a pretty first round district game for the Park Hill and Park Hill South girls basketball teams, but few of the recent games played between these two rivals have been. On Monday, both were hoping to advance to a second round matchup Tuesday evening with first seed Staley.

Park Hill South kept up with the Trojans throughout the first half leaving Park Hill with a 17-14 halftime advantage. Despite, not seeing a normally strong shooting performance, the Panthers had some luck in their half-court game. On the other hand, Park Hill’s full-court pressure created problems for South which allowed the Trojans to find success on the baseline against the Panthers’ zone defense.

“Our outside scoring was sketchy at best. But overall, we shot real well from the free throw line,” Park Hill South coach Jenny Orlowski said.

Park Hill instituted a 1-3-1 defense on the Panthers to start the second half looking to slow their outside shooting causing a little disruption of South’s offense. While at times, they were able to drive through the defense, their shots simply weren’t falling.

“We thought it might help us out a little bit and maybe give them some fits. It worked at times,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said of the 1-3-1 defense. “We just wanted to slow down their outside shooting and keep some girls out of foul trouble.”

Throughout the third and fourth quarter, the Panther offense continued to struggle allowing Park Hill to increase their lead to as much as 12 with fewer than six minutes to play. Some timely converted free throws kept Park Hill South in the game, allowing them to attempt a comeback. A technical foul on Orlowski with 4:30 to play in the fourth quarter seemed to spark play eventually bringing the Panthers to within five points, Park Hill leading 34-29. The comeback was cut short though, as Park Hill’s Kyleesha Weston hit several key free throws in the final minute to widen the margin for a 40-31 final in the Trojans’ favor. Weston and Bethany Sullinger led Park Hill with 11 and 10 points respectively while Stephanie Griffith led South in scoring with nine points.

Park Hill South’s season ends with a 9-15 record while Park Hill advanced to Tuesday night’s semifinal game against Staley. As of deadline, the game had yet to be decided, but Park Hill knew they would be in for a battle quite different than the one they went through Monday night.

“Staley is very fast, very good, and we’re going to try to limit their possessions. We want to make it a half-court basketball game,” Neeser said. “It’s more about our kids and I think if we have the belief, go out and execute, we’ll have a chance.”