The Park Hill girls’ basketball team (8-12) snapped a 2-game losing skid with a 44-38 second-half comeback win over Liberty (13-7) on Feb. 6.
The Lady Trojans earned their second Silver Division victory of the season as they entered the day with a 1-4 conference record. The matchup with the Lady Blue Jays was back-and-forth as there were nine ties and 22 lead changes.
The biggest margin in the opening frame was two points on multiple occasions with Liberty holding an 11-9 advantage. Miah Crockett, Boston Wand and McKenna Sonsa all scored in the opening three minutes of the second quarter to put Park Hill up 16-14 with 5:39 on the clock.
Liberty retook the lead and pushed the first half score to the largest deficit after Lauren Bogle fouled Oliviya Tinoco on a 3-point attempt with 3:32 on the clock. After Tinoco made all three shots, the Lady Blue Jays went up 21-16 before heading into the locker room with a 25-23 advantage.
McKenna Sonsa finished with a game-high 15 points in the Lady Trojans 44-38 win over Liberty on Feb. 6.
Cali Richards tied the game at 25 with the opening bucket of the second half, but Park Hill went on a scoring drought after that. The Lady Trojans went scoreless for the next 4:13 and didn’t make another field goal for 5:01.
Sonsa picked up the slack in the closing minutes, scoring the final eight points for Park Hill. Sonsa knocked down a pair of shots from behind the arc and two shots from the charity stripe as Liberty held on to a 34-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Wand converted on a layup in the first minute of the final frame with an impressive up-and-under post move down low to give Park Hill its first lead since the first half. The Lady Trojans locked up Liberty defensively late, not allowing a single field goal in the last eight minutes.
The Lady Blue Jays’ only points in the fourth quarter were from the charity stripe where they shot five-of-six. Lauren Bogle made a shot from deep and Lydia Keller may a layup to help Park Hill extend its lead as the Lady Trojans never trailed after the opening bucket in the quarter.
Sonsa led the offense with 15 points on three-of-four shooting from downtown and Wand had a double-double as the sophomore scored 10 points and snagged 10 boards. The victory gave the Lady Trojans a winning record at home, moving to 4-3 at Park Hill High School.
Park Hill entered the night coming off a 51-44 loss to Staley (13-8) on Jan. 26 and a 48-37 defeat to St. Joseph’s Central (12-6) on Feb. 2. In the matchup with the Lady Falcons, Sonsa had 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists and Wand ended with 10 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Maddie Crump scored a team-high 11 points against the Lady Indians and Wand added eight points. Park Hill will have three more games before districts, starting with a tough matchup with Park Hill South (18-3) – the No. 5 team in Class 6 – on Feb. 9.