Park Hill sophomore Taylor Finney scored 12 points in two of the three games in the Winnetonka Tournament.
KANSAS CITY – The Park Hill girls’ basketball team (2-3) has kicked off the season with a fourth-place finish in the Winnetonka Tournament for the second straight year.
Park Hill was in the Cardinal Division and opened up play with a 43-28 triumph over Fort Osage (1-2) on Nov. 27. The Lady Trojans relied heavily on McKenna Sosna, Taylor Finney and Izzy Petznick as the trio combined for 37 points.
Sosna led the way with 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal. Finney scored a career-high 12 points on an efficient 5-of-9 shooting and Petznick only missed one shot and scored 10 points, while blocking a shot and forcing two steals.
Lee’s Summit relied heavily on outside shooting in the next round – scoring its first nine points from behind the arc and adding another at the first quarter buzzer – en route to defeating Park Hill 65-37 on Nov. 29. Sosna scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists and forced three steals, while Brooklyn Bronston-Byrd scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
In the third-place game, Park Hill was in a battle with Raymore-Peculiar (2-2) and came up short, 50-45, on Dec. 1.
Sosna was once again the leading scorer. dropping 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 from behind the arc. Finney finished with 12 points again – to go with five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block.
Outside of the Winnetonka Tournament, Park Hill has played two other games this season. The season opener was against Truman – a team that went 23-3 a year ago – which resulted in a 43-35 loss.
Scoring only 35 points on the night ended up being the least amount of points by Park Hill in a season opener since 2015, but Park Hill forced 20 Truman turnovers. Paige Barry had three of the 11 steals, while Petznick and Anna Anderson both had two.
Bronston-Byrd and Petznick each knocked down four free throws to score 10 points apiece. The Lady Trojans struggled to shoot the ball, only making 19.5 percent of shots and 14.5 percent from the perimeter.
Park Hill’s most recent game was on the road and came out on top against William Chrisman (1-2) on Dec. 4. Next up for the Lady Trojans is a road matchup with North Kansas City (3-1) on Dec. 7.