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.”

Winter Roundup: Feb. 14-18

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The Park Hill boys basketball team was able to snap a four game lossing streak last Friday as they defeated Belton 73-56 in their final game of the regular season to improve to 15-10 on the year. With their top seed in the Class 5, District 16 tournament, the Trojans will face the winner of the Staley/Oak Park game in the semifinals of the tournament Thursday evening. A win would set up a title game against the Park Hill South/St. Joe Central winner on Saturday night at Oak Park High School.

Despite their fall from the top of the conference leader board over the last two weeks, Coach David Garrison hopes the victory on Friday night puts Park Hill on a new path towards winning a district title. A strong class of seniors will be the Trojans' key any title run and a disappointing semifinal loss to Oak Park last season will play into their minds as a source of motivation. Park Hill defeated Oak Park, Staley, and Park Hill South earlier in the season while the Trojans split their series with St. Joe Central. One thing Garrison knows is that with the teams in the district it will be very competitive.

"It's going to be a tough district, everyone has a chance to win it," Garrison said. "It's going to come down to whoever can get hot and execute in the 4th quarter of the game."

Park Hill guard Chris Nsenki scored his 1,252nd point of his career on Friday night. Currently, he is the third highest scorer in school history and only one of four players to have scored over 1,000 points.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
As of press time, Park Hill South's district semifinal game against St. Joe Central was undetermined. The third seed Panthers have not faced the second seeded Indians this season. Coming into this week, the Panthers had won three of the previous four games. The defending district champs are 15-8 on the season after winning both of their final two games last week against Belton (78-47) and Winnetonka.

“The win gives us a share of the conference title with Raytown South,” Park Hill South Coach Anthony Perry said. “We finished up 8-2 in conference.”

“Our district should be very competitive with a number of teams having a chance to win it,” Perry said. “The players are very excited about the conference title and are looking forward to competing in districts.”

Park Hill South Girls Swim/Dive
The Park Hill South girls swim and dive team came home with a tenth place finish at the state swim meet last weekend. Their strength all year, the Panthers did particularly well in the relays with second and third place finishes from their 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley. The two relays are made up of Lyndsay Ryan, Rachael Norfleet, Mary Cate Reinert and Mariah Bryant in the medley along with Ryan and Bryant with Olivia McLain and Miranda Henderson in the freestyle. Park Hill South tied in team points with Blue Springs, the second best finish for a team from the Kansas City metropolitan area behind Notre Dame de Sion's sixth place finish.