Park Hill junior Brooklyn Bronston-Byrd scored all five of her team’s first quarter points in the opening round of districts at Liberty North High School on Feb. 28.
LIBERTY NORTH – History didn’t repeat itself when Park Hill (11-13) was the lower seed and took on a talented Liberty North squad (25-3) in its house in the opening round of the Class 6 District 8 Girls’ Basketball Tournament on Feb. 28.
A year removed from being the No. 6 seed and taking out the No. 3 seed to kick off the postseason, Park Hill was in a similar spot as the No. 7 seed this year. Liberty North however had different plans, showing why it earned the No. 2 seed in the highly competitive district tournament.
The Lady Trojans came into the night playing arguably their best ball in two years, recently defeating Staley (25-2) – who is the top-seed in the Class 6 District 8 Tournament – and winning five of their last seven games. The Lady Eagles drilled a pair of threes to start the contest, went ahead 11-0 in the first three minutes and locked up defensively on the other end.
It took until 2:22 left in the first quarter for Park Hill to get on the scoreboard. Junior Brooklyn Bronston-Byrd had only averaged 3.22 points in the regular season but scored all five of her team’s first quarter points in districts.
Bronston-Byrd knocked down a triple from the right corner and then added a layup in the press break right over a minute later. When the first quarter buzzer sounded, Liberty North led 15-5.
The second quarter wasn’t any better for the Lady Trojans, making only two buckets and being outscored 11-0 between the two field goals. Trailing 19-5, Izzy Petznick put up a missed shot through the cylinder then Lydia Keller hit a shot from downtown with 22 seconds left in the half, ending a 4:51 scoring drought.
Being behind 20 points at halftime, Park Hill faced an uphill battle and trailed by at least that much the rest of the contest. Liberty North kept pressing until the final buzzer, coming out on top 53-25.
Bronston-Byrd led the way with eight points, her most in any game since Dec. 7, making both of her shots from downtown. Keller also hit two threes and other than her and Bronston-Byrd, Park Hill shot 0-12 from downtown.
This was the largest postseason margin of defeat that Park Hill has had since losing by 24 points to Staley in the Class 5 District 16 Semifinals in 2011. This season, the Lady Trojans struggled on the road with only one win in seven tries but dominated at home, coming out on top in eight of the 10 games.
Seniors McKenna Sosna, Paige Barry and Jaelyn Tucker will have to be replaced next year. Sosna led the Lady Trojans in multiple statistical categories this year – with averages of 11 points, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals – and Barry was second overall in total steals with 25.