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.

Winter Round-up: Dec. 12-17

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
… won all three of their games last week including two conference games behind strong defensive efforts as they knocked off William Chrisman, Belton, and Winnetonka. Anthony Woods led the Panthers with 17 points against William Chrisman in a 50-41 victory. Hudson Welty added 15 points and nine rebounds while Robert Lane grabbed 12 rebounds. A 21-4 run in the second quarter against Belton fueled by Woods and Payton Meek pushed them towards a 58-44 win. Woods led all scorers with 21 points while Welty and Lane added 10 points apiece. Park Hill South pulled out a close 40-35 win over Winnetonka to close the week. Woods led again with 13 points. The Panthers, now 6-2, have this week off while preparing for the William Jewell Invitational after Christmas. Starting the season off with little varsity experience, the tournament will give the Panthers several strong opponents from which they’ll be able to gauge their early season success against.

Park Hill Boys Basketball
…continued a tough stretch of games last week as they fell in their only game to Kearney 60-33 bringing their record to 3-3 on the year. Despite getting down early, Park Hill battled back from a 30-11 deficit to narrow the margin to within 12 points late in the third quarter, but it would not be enough. The Trojans are facing several obstacles in the early season with three key players out due to injuries, Marcus Cross, John Harris, and Brent Collins. After their game Tuesday against Ruskin, Park Hill gets a week off to get healthy and rest before competing in the William Jewell Invitational the last week of December.

“We have three guys who should return at least by Jewell. We have some work to do offensively. We left a lot of opportunities on the floor, and you can't do that against good teams,” Coach David Garrison said after last Friday’s game.

Park Hill Wrestling
….placed 12th with 302.5 team points in the KC Classic held at Hale Arena over the weekend. Ke-Shawn Hayes placed third, followed by Nolan Smith’s fifth place finish, Colston DiBlasi sixth, and John Erneste seventh.

The Trojans come out of a tough three week span in which they wrestling some of the top competition in the region, but their strong early season schedule is intentional and meant to challenge them for when they need it most come February.

“Our first three weeks can be summed up with ‘That which does not kill you will make you stronger’. We were fortunate to wrestle in the Park Hill Duals, the Iron Man in Cleveland and the Midwest USA-Dollamur (KC Classic) three straight weeks,” Coach Bill Erneste said. “Our guys made it out of that healthy and it definitely gave us target areas to work on over Christmas.”

Park Hill gets a break from competition for the next week while they eye the start of the conference schedule with St. Joe Central on January 3rd.

Park Hill South Wrestling
…lost their dual against Kearney last week 43-18. Five wrestlers came away with victories in their matches including Bradley Wright at 106, Alex Weatherly at 160, Nick Gillespie at 195, and Tyler Blythe at 220. George Barth recorded the Panthers’ only pin with his win at 132. They are off over the holidays as they prepare for their conference schedule to begin in January with Fort Osage on January 3rd.

They placed third in the Lee's Summit Holiday Invitational over the weekend with 237.5 team points. Only half a point separated them from Columbia Rockbridge's 238 points. Brett Rounkles finished second at 120, George Barth took third at 126, Adam Weatherly placed fifth at 145, Chase Gray took second at 182, and Tyler Blyth placed fifth.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
… after a 60-29 victory over Raytown South to start the week, the Panthers split their remaining two games with a 39-33 win over Grandview and a 54-46 loss to William Chrisman. Mackenzie Stout led in scoring with 12 points against Grandview while Madeline Homoly pulled in seven rebounds to continue leading the Panthers in rebounding with 5.5 per game. Homoly led Park Hill South in scoring with 11 points against Chrisman.

“As a young team, our Raytown South and William Chrisman games were both positive learning experiences for us. In both games, we played well and executed both offensively and defensively. Despite an 8 point loss to Chrisman, I was proud of the way our girls played. They are maturing on the court and still learning how to play together,” Coach Jenny Orlowski said.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
…after losing early in the week to North Kansas City 38-31, the Lady Trojans came back strong to beat Belton 72-19. Kyleesha Weston recorded a triple-double with 14 points, 10 assists, and 12 steals. Dominique Broadus added 10 points while Shelby Blanchard and Amanda Lawrence each contributed nine points.