BASEHOR, Kan. — Park Hill followed up perhaps its best performance of the season with a difficult loss to the hosts in the Bobcat Invitational championship game on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Basehor-Linwood — ranked second in Kansas’ Class 4A Division I — remained unbeaten with a 69-61 victory, while the Trojans finished out their tournament season with one championship — the Nelson Division of the William Jewell Holiday Classic — and a pair of runner-up finishes. The Bobcats pulled away in the fourth quarter at Basehor-Linwood High School despite 21 points for Park Hill senior standout Landry Shamet, who became the fifth player in program history to join the 1,000-point club in the process.
Park Hill closes with 12 straight in the Suburban League Red Division, including a Tuesday, Jan. 27 matchup with Liberty not completed at The Citizen’s deadline before embarking into Class 5 District 16 play in search of a second straight playoff bid.
“We kind of viewed tonight as the first round of districts,” Park Hill coach David Garrison said of the importance of a title game berth after Thursday’s semifinal win. “This is like a preseason district tournament for us, and we got a chance to play for the championship on Saturday night.”
Park Hill (12-3) throttled Hayden (Kan.) by 30 in their semifinal matchup behind a lights-out shooting performance from Louis Reinmiller and key secondary contributions.
A Central Missouri signee, Reinmiller hit 4-of-8 3-point tries on the way to a season-high 18 points. Three of the treys came in the first half and helped make up for Shamet’s early foul trouble.
The Wichita State signee picked up his second foul with 3 minutes, 4 seconds left in the first quarter. After Hayden made both resulting free throws, Reinmiller immediately answered with a 3 from the left wing to stretch Park Hill’s lead back to 18-9, and the Trojans were ahead 20-12 when Shamet returned with 6:04 left in the half.
With current Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall in attendance, Shamet immediately contributed a two-hand putback dunk and then a layup in transition to make it 24-15 for the Trojans.
“When he’s out, we all know we’ve got to have people step up, and we’ve got play our roles, make sure we’re doing everything right,” Reinmiller said. “We can’t have the little mistakes. We almost have to be perfect when he’s out.
“People are starting to notice we have other weapons out here.”
Park Hill opened on an 11-2 run that included 3s for Reinmiller and Deionte Wilson (nine points). After Shamet’s two big buckets, Tanner Zeil — a 6-foot-7 sophomore — hit another 3 to make it 28-15 Trojans. Behind five of their six 3s, Park Hill led by as many as 19 in the first half and were not threatened after taking a 39-21 lead into the break.
Shamet added an alley-oop dunk from Carter Anchors to kickstart the scoring after a slow open to the third quarter. Shamet finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Park Hill’s Ryan Truvillion — a 6-7 reserve senior forward — totaled all seven of his points and received compliments from Marshall outside the locker room. The coach also posed for a selfie with Trojans forward and Shamet’s best friend Jamaal Brazil.
“That’s one of the great things about this team,” Garrison said. “We’ve got different people who can step up. Different games, we’re going to have different leading scorers — unlike some previous years where we might have somebody average pretty high and the others are a step below them.
“We’ve got different pieces of the puzzle, night in and night out, can perform.”
Blue Valley boys 76, Platte County 43
The Tigers hit 13 3-pointers in a fifth-place game romp on Friday, Jan. 23.
Platte County dropped to 6-10 overall, still yet to win more than two straight games this season entering its Suburban League Blue Division opener at Grandview on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Results were not available at The Citizen’s deadline. The Pirates final 12 games consist of the league round robin.
Against Blue Valley, Josh Eastman led the way with 14 points, while Sam Zimmerman was limited to just seven. Platte County trailed 36-20 after the first quarter and 58-31 entering the fourth quarter before encountering a running clock.
Platte County boys 52 Benton 48
The Pirates won for the second time in three meetings this season with a former Midland Empire Conference rival, advancing to the consolation final.
Benton hit a pair of late 3-pointers to close within four points on Wednesday, Jan. 21, but Kodee Martin hit a pair of free throws to assure the win. He scored seven points.
Zimmerman kept up his high-scoring efforts with a game-high 27 points. Jake Eastman added eight and Josh Eastman another seven to account for almost all of the Pirates’ scoring.
Platte County won the first meeting between the two by 22 points in December but lost to the Cardinals the previous week in the semifinals of Kearney’s Bulldog Classic.
Ottawa boys 64, Platte County 47
The Pirates were bounced into the consolation bracket after a sub-par shooting performance in the first round on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Zimmerman totaled 17 points, while the Eastmans added 19 more combined. The Pirates were outscored in each quarter and didn’t mount a serious challenge in the second half.