Starting the season with a high point total has become a tradition for the Park Hill boys’ basketball team (0-1) who came up short 102-95 in an instant classic and high-scoring affair to North Kansas City (2-0) on Nov. 29.
Park Hill senior Marqueas Bell dunks right before the third quarter buzzer in the Trojans 102-95 season opening loss to North Kansas City on Nov. 29.
In last year’s opening contest, the Trojans poured out 101 points – doing so in a 59-point victory over Fort Osage – but nearly cracking triple digits wasn’t quite enough to come out on top this go-around. Park Hill’s offense produced video game like numbers, shooting 60.3 percent from the field and 45.8 percent from deep, but 19 costly turnovers and a 57.1 percent outing from the charity stripe kept the Trojans from earning the victory.
“We always stress defense, and it was just one of those games where there were two very evenly matched teams getting up and down the court at an incredibly fast pace,” Park Hill head coach Chad Jones said. “It was tight the entire time and just kind of turned out that we ended up getting on the wrong end of it.”
Ty Schreck swished a trey from the right wing in the opening 30 seconds to set the tone for the night that saw 197 total points, 12 lead changes and five ties. Gavin Schaag knocked down a pair of threes from the right corner and Marqueas Bell scored a bucket with 20 seconds left in the first quarter to put the Trojans up 25-22 early.
Park Hill senior Kendrick Bell goes up over a North Kansas City defender in the season opener.
The Hornets trailed the entire second quarter until beating the buzzer with a shot from deep to lead 53-52 at the break to put both squads on pace to score 100 points. Marqueas Bell scored three of the first four Park Hill buckets in the third quarter, followed by yet another 3-pointer by Schaag, yet the Hornets took a 68-63 lead with right over two minutes left.
Marqueas Bell broke loose in the open court in the closing seconds of the third quarter and threw the hammer down right before the buzzer to close the gap, 73-72. However, he was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim and the Hornets knocked down a pair of free throws to head into the final quarter up 75-72, killing the Trojans’ momentum.
“You don’t see 102 or 95 points very often in high school basketball game and to that point, yeah, we’ve got to fix a couple of defensive issues. We don’t plan on giving up that many in the rest of the year but it was a strange game,” Jones said.
North Kansas City scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, but Kendrick Bell responded with five unanswered points by himself to bring Park Hill back within one possession. On the other end, Schaag – who had two fouls at the time – drew his fourth foul when a North Kansas City player drew contact and the Trojan guard’s hand unintentionally hit the Hornet in the face, which resulted in a technical foul and four points from the charity stripe.
Gavin Schaag converted on a career-high seven 3-pointers on 11 attempts to end with a team-high 27 points in the Trojans 102-95 loss.
Park Hill continued to put the ball in the basket but was unable to string together enough stops to catch up to North Kansas City down the stretch. A floater by Marqueas Bell and a right corner 3-pointer by Desire Tonye-Nyemack off Kendrick Bell’s pass brought the game within four points with 50 seconds left.
The Hornets took advantage of their trips to the free throw line and the Trojans missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw and turned the ball over two times in the next 20 seconds as the lead was pushed to as much as nine points. When the final buzzer hit, North Kansas City was the victor by a 7-point margin.
“The last time I gave up 100 points in the game as a head coach was 21 years ago. Usually when somebody scores 100 in high school, the other team is about 40 points behind them,” Jones said.
Schaag shot lights out, making a career-high seven shots from behind the arc on 11 attempts, to end with a team-high 27 points. Marqueas Bell finished with 26 points on 60 percent shooting, five rebounds, five assists and three steals while Kendrick Bell ended with 20 points on seven of 11 shooting, along with five rebounds and six assists.
“It remains to be seen what kind of numbers we’ll put up night in and night out, but we were one of the highest scoring teams in the city last year and I don’t think that’ll change this year. I think we should probably average 70 or more each night, which on most nights is going to be enough to get that done,” Jones said.
Tonye-Nyemack made all five of his shot attempts, scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds, and Schreck ended with five points, eight assists and five steals. The Trojans will look to bounce back in the Liberty North Tournament, which started on Dec. 6 and ends on Dec. 9.