Park Hill hopes to win rematch of season's first game, this time for district title

After having beat every team in their district except for Liberty (16-5), it was expected the Park Hill Trojans (17-6) would be seeded below them as the two seed in the upcoming Class Five, District 16 Boys Tournament, but high school basketball fans from around the area will be highly anticipating what could be a Liberty/Park Hill district championship game. It was way back on December 1st, both teams’ first games of the season, when Park Hill nearly pulled out the upset at Liberty before falling 73-68. Since then, it’s easy to say the Trojans have been looking forward to a rematch. But both teams will have to do their part in winning their district semifinal games before any rematch can take place.

With the top two seeds receiving first round byes, the Trojans will wait for the winner of third ranked Oak Park and sixth ranked St. Joe Central. Even though the Indians are ranked last, for those familiar with St. Joe, there is no doubt they will have an advantage as the host school and a match-up with the young, inexperienced, but full of potential Northmen could lead to an interesting match-up in the tournaments opening round. This should leave a rested Park Hill with a leg-up against either team, both of which the Trojans were able to handedly defeat during the regular season. In either case, Park Hill will likely present a more athletic and up-beat tempo compared to their opponent in the second round game to be played February 24th.

In what was anticipated as an encore performance of an overtime thriller earlier this season between rivals Park Hill and Park Hill South, both schools’ supporters showed up at Park Hill South last week as purple and red reflected on opposite sides of the gym. Park Hill came out a little timid on the Panthers’ home court as they gave up some second chance points off defensive missteps, but took a halftime lead of 26-15. Brady Kreitzer took the Trojans on his back in the third quarter as the games leading scorer finishing with 19 points and the offensive cylinders started rolling as they gradually increased their lead before finally sealing the victory at 63-40. Justin Leathers and Chris Nsenki both added 17 points as they remained undefeated in conference at 8-0 and officially clinched the Big Six Conference Championship for the first time since 2002.

As they complete their last week of the regular season, Park Hill thanked their four seniors on Tuesday night, Bryan Willis, Steven Clark, Austin Kepler, and Justin Leathers, as they hosted William Chrisman. They’ll visit Winnetonka in the season finale Friday, February 19th before heading into post-season play.