Lady Trojans look to Districts, rematch with South

The Park Hill and Park Hill South girls’ basketball teams have already met twice this season resulting in two hard fought games with victories being split between the two. This past weekend they received news they’ll be meeting a third time, but it’ll be more than a regular season game as it will be in the first round of the Class Five, District 16 tournament on February 23rd for an opportunity to go on to play the host school, St. Joe Central, in the second round. Park Hill received the third seed with a record of 14-9 while Park Hill South received the sixth seed with a record of 3-16.

Park Hill was likely one win shy of receiving a beneficial two seed and first round bye, but the nod was given to St. Joe Central (13-7) probably due to the fact that the Lady Indians beat the Trojans 51-41 two weeks ago in a head to head match-up which gave them a stronger resume. Liberty received the first seed and will likely play in the championship game to be held February 27th pending a letdown between the winner of the Winnetonka/Oak Park game.

Park Hill will come into the game against the Lady Panthers favored, but it has yet to be seen how much of an effect the loss of senior Laura Bennett will have on the Trojans scoring. Coach Brian Rockers has leaned on his seniors all season and they’ll be looked towards again as they head into the district tournament. Senior Katy Plummer will be an important key in the post as a leading rebounder and point scorer while it will be important for sophomore Kyleesha Weston and senior Emma Gossett to stay out of foul trouble and be aggressive as the leaders of the Trojan offense.

The Trojans have one more regular season game against William Chrisman on Thursday this week. It’ll be Senior Night at Park Hill for a group which has had a majority of its playing time at the varsity level over the last three years. Last week they defeated Grandview by a score of 48-34 with strong performances from Plummer with 11 and Michele Rupard with ten points. Weston and freshman Sydney Hultz added seven a piece.