A second half spark off the bench by Park Hill freshman Anaya Guess helped the Lady Trojan basketball team (14-9) hold off Lee’s Summit West (9-12) 57-47 on Feb. 14.
Guess – who went scoreless in the first half – poured out 12 points off the bench in the final 10:29 of the game. In what started with a right corner 3-pointer in the third period ended with her scoring nine of the Trojans’ 22 fourth quarter points.
“Anaya was huge for us tonight,” Park Hill head coach Aaron Neeser said. “We couldn’t take her off the floor because she was just in control and playing within herself.”
The Trojans never trailed in the contest other than a brief 2-0 Titan lead after scoring the first bucket in the opening seconds. When Amaya Blake scored a layup with 1:46 remaining in the contest, it looked like Park Hill had secured its ninth Gold Division win, but Lee’s Summit West didn’t go down without a fight.
When the Titans began to foul the Trojans to send them to the free throw line, there was an apparent lid on the basket and Park Hill struggled to knock down shots as the Titans closed the gap to 49-47 with 35.5 seconds left. Although Park Hill had missed three of its last four attempts – with three trips being the front end of a one-and-one – McKenna Sonsa and Guess both made four free throws apiece in the final 33 seconds to pull out the win.
“We just gutted it out and almost gave it away with missed free throws at the very end, but then they stepped up and made the ones they needed to. If you don’t make free throws, it makes things a lot harder,” Neeser said.
Park Hill freshman Anaya Guess, above, scored 12 points in the second half to help lead Park Hill over Lee’s Summit West on Feb. 14.
In one of the more memorable moments in the contest, there was a pair of made 3-pointers in the last five seconds of the first quarter, starting with a banked in shot by the Titans. Then Kennedy Townsend took the inbound pass and the Park Hill senior’s shot from behind half court on the volleyball line was nothing but net, and the Trojans had an early 20-11 lead.
“That was awesome for Kennedy, we are going to have to watch that on film tomorrow. We practice those shots so it was pretty cool to see one in a game,” Neeser said.
Park Hill has been rolling on all cylinders lately, winning five of its last six games, with two regular season contests left ahead of the Class 6 District 8 Tournament. The Trojans will play Raymore-Peculiar (6-17) on the road on Feb. 17 then host Blue Springs South (19-4) on Feb. 21.