Regan Williams led the Panthers with 15 points, along with eight rebounds and three steals in her first game of the 2022 calendar year.
Coming off a pair of losses after an undefeated start to the season, the Park Hill South girls’ basketball team (7-2) is back on the winning side after defeating Oak Park (5-5) 63-29 on Jan. 3.
In their first game since Dec. 20, the Panthers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back to start 2022 with a dominant victory. The sophomore duo of Avery Simmons and Regan Williams both scored four points in the opening frame to give Park Hill South a 13-5 margin.
“We are also at a point in the year where we know what we do well and what we need to do to score and those kinds of things, so we were able to focus a little more on that,” Park Hill South head coach Josh Dorr said. “We also had a couple of weeks to game plan and add a couple of things so that helped too.”
Park Hill South scored 31 points in the first half and held Oak Park to nine points – five of which were from the charity stripe. The Panther defense only allowed the Lady Oakies to convert on a mere two field goals in the opening 16:00 of play.
“Our defense has been our hallmark all year long. We haven’t given up many points all year, so we just keep leaning on that and relying on our height and length,” Dorr said.
Oak Park scored more points in the third quarter than in the entire first half, but Park Hill South still outscored its opponent in the period to lead 44-21 entering the final frame. The Panthers continued to execute, and they eventually gained a 30-point lead with a running clock in the closing minutes.
“When you come out of a break like we did with the holiday, you usually have to knock a lot of rust off and we were able to do that and work on a couple of things. I’m glad we came out and played hard and got the rust knocked off because it is going to start ramping up pretty quick,” Dorr said.
Williams led the Park Hill South offense with 15 points and eight rebounds and Simmons finished with 13 points and seven rebounds as the sophomore duo both ended with three steals and shot 50 percent from the field. Jayme Dixon added eight points, five assists and two steals, while making four of her eight field goal attempts.
Park Hill South’s defense had 13 steals and Tatum Kells had three of the team’s five blocks on the night, and the senior also snagged seven rebounds. The Panthers’ next victim will be Kearney (1-6) when the Bulldogs head to Park Hill South High School on Jan. 7.