Coming off six consecutive losses, the Park Hill girls’ basketball team (6-9) strung together two straight wins on the back side of the bracket in the Kearney Tournament to win the consolation championship.
Park Hill senior McKenna Sonsa was the only Lady Trojan to make the all-tournament team when she helped lead them to a consolation championship.
The Lady Trojans started the tournament with a 42-34 loss to the host school, Kearney (4-8), on Jan. 9. The first-round game went down to the wire with the contest being tied at 33 with less than three minutes left in regulation.
The Lady Bulldogs knocked down a late 3-pointer to put them up with 1:30 left after calling a timeout. Park Hill had offensive struggles late and Kearney closed the game out on a 9-1 run.
The entire contest was tight, with Kearney holding on to an 11-8 advantage after the first quarter and Park Hill narrowly taking a 21-18 lead at the break. The game was tied at 26 at the end of the third quarter before the Lady Bulldogs pulled it out.
McKenna Sonsa led the way for Park Hill, shooting five-of-12 from the field and making two shots from deep to end with 12 points. Lydia Keller and Boston Wand both added six points.
While the loss made it six in a row for Park Hill, it wouldn’t be denied a win the next time the Lady Trojans stepped on the court. In the next game against Hogan Prep Charter (1-7), Park Hill came out with a one-sided 58-9 victory on Jan. 11.
All 12 Lady Trojans who stepped onto the court scored, led by Miah Crockett with 10 points in addition to her seven steals. Crockett entered the day with only six steals on the season, which makes the defensive outing even more impressive.
Cal Richards had only scored seven points all season up to this point but matched that point total in this game alone to go with her three steals. Lauren Bogle made two of the Lady Trojans’ four 3-pointers to give her six points, which was the same amount of points that Izzy Petznick had.
Park Hill had 23 steals and 32 rebounds on the night to help snap the losing skid. Sonsa led the way in the consolation championship with 18 points to lead the Lady Trojans to a 51-28 win over St. Joseph’s Lafayette (5-8) on Jan. 13.
Park Hill pushed the win streak to three in a row when the Lady Trojans hit the road and defeated Raymore-Peculiar (5-9) 55-47 in regular season play on Jan. 16. Park Hill will look to keep this hot play in a road game against St. Pius X (4-6) on Jan. 19.