The Park Hill girls’ basketball team (6-10) was on the verge of getting some extra time and a chance to win its fourth straight game but was stunned on a buzzer beating putback layup against St. Pius X (6-8) on Jan. 19.
In a defensive battle that saw both teams shooting under 23 percent from the field and combining for 23 turnovers, the low-scoring affair went down to the wire. Park Hill clinched a 24-23 lead ahead of the fourth quarter, but St. Pius scored a layup in the first minute of the final frame to go up by one and never relinquished the lead.
Paige Barry tied the game at 25 with a free throw with 4:45 to play and then both teams matched buckets in the next two minutes. McKenna Sonsa and Boston Wand both scored layups when the Lady Trojans trailed by two points with Wand doing it with 2:37 to play.
Both teams had some chances down the stretch to score but the game remained tied at 29 with the clock ticking. The Lady Warriors called a timeout with 27.4 seconds left on the clock and drew up a play.
After numerous passes around the perimeter, Ava Coons made the first attempt to dribble within the 3-point line, but Sonsa made her pick her up dribble at the right wing with three seconds to play. Coons bounce passed the ball to a cutting Carline McCoy who had a contested layup with two seconds left.
Barry was in the paint with her hands up and she fell down after McCoy shot – and missed – the layup, but the Lady Warrior stuck with the play. With less than 0.5 seconds left, McCoy gathered herself and the ball to get one last shot up and without using the backboard, made the shot to end the game.
While Park Hill was hoping to play in overtime, the game ended in regulation with a score of 31-29. The Lady Trojans led more than they trailed but were unable to pull off the victory.
Maddie Crump started the game off with a made shot from behind the right wing arc on a pass from Wand in the first 26 seconds. Wand scored back-to-back layups and Crump added another triple before Cali Richards had a steal and layup ahead of the buzzer to put Park Hill up 12-7.
The Lady Warriors tied the game at 13 with a pair of free throws at the 5:25 mark and took their first lead at 17-15 with 3:37 to play in the half. St. Pius headed into the locker room with an 18-17 advantage.
There were four lead changes in the third quarter, which began when Wand opened the second half with a layup in the first 11 seconds. Crump knocked down her third trey on the right wing off a skip pass from Sonsa.
The shot put Park Hill up 24-20 with 4:50 to play and there was only one total made basket for the rest of the frame. The Lady Warriors swished a 3-pointer from the right corner to bring the game within one point with 30 seconds left before taking a quick fourth quarter lead and never looking back.
Crump led the way for Park Hill with nine points and Wand added eight points to go with a monstrous and career-high seven blocks. Ahead of that game, the Lady Trojans had won four consecutive contests with the last one being a 55-47 triumph over Raymore-Peculiar (5-9) on Jan. 16.
Crump had a career day offensively, finishing with a personal best 19 points and four made 3-pointers on the night to go with her four rebounds and one steal. Sonsa added 11 points, seven rebounds and two steals while Wand ended with nine points, seven rebounds, four blocks and four steals.