Lady Panthers pull out close win over Trojans

Pre-Christmas high school basketball isn’t always pretty as teams try to find their early season identities, but streaks of potential greatness can be seen at intervals for what their best might look like come February. This was the case Monday night when the Park Hill South Lady Panthers took on the Park Hill Lady Trojans.

South jumped out to an 11-2 lead early in the first quarter before the Trojans narrowed the lead to 13-10 going into the second. Park Hill narrowed the margin further to 23-22 going into halftime. A key matchup was Park Hill’s Dominique Broadus challenge to South’s freshman center Madeline Homoly. Homoly held her own with 14 points. Both played a big role pulling in rebounds in a rough game under the basket.

“Dominique is good at posting up down low and turning towards the basket while Madeline is a little quicker and can step out of the post,” South coach Jenny Orlowski.

Park Hill would jump ahead in the third as Kyleesha Weston’s scoring put the Trojans ahead for the first time. Up 30-26 with three minutes to play in the third quarter, Weston was called for her fourth foul and showed a slightly emotional disapproval resulting in a technical and her fifth foul, ending her evening. She finished with 13 points. With their top scorer out, guard Bethany Sullinger filled Weston’s void with several key baskets. Sullinger led all scorers with 16 points. Park Hill led 36-28 going into the fourth quarter.

“She was stepping up for a teammate,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said of Sullinger.

Both teams wavered in their free throw shooting down the stretch, but it was a pair of baskets caused by full-court pressure that turned the game in the Panthers’ favor. On the back of aggressive defense and well-balanced offense, South took the lead with three minutes to play in the game, never relinquishing it. A one basket game until the end, Park Hill’s three-point attempts fell short in the closing seconds giving Park Hill South a 52-49 victory. Samantha Roy also scored 14 points.

Both coaches admitted room for improvement and mirrored each others’ concerns.

“I’m glad we’re at 5-4, but we have a lot of things to work on during break,” Orlowski said.

“They (South) played well; I’m not going to take that away from them. We missed free throws, didn’t execute, and lost our composure. We’ve got a lot to work on,” Neeser said.