The Park Hill South girls’ basketball team (11-3) has now won three consecutive games after a rare 2-game losing skid.
Ava Miles
The Lady Panthers have won their first five games in the Silver Division of the Kansas City Suburban Conference, most recently against Liberty (9-4) on Jan. 13. This marked the fourth time since the start of the 2022 calendar year that Park Hill South came out victorious in the series, this time by a score of 44-37.
After that, Park Hill South had a non-conference home game and took care of business against Blue Springs (5-6) on Jan. 16. After a slow start, the Lady Panthers came out with a 57-30 win.
There were four lead changes with the opening field goals as Blue Springs knocked down three shots from behind the arc to put Park Hill South behind 9-4 early. The Lady Panthers fought back and took a 13-11 lead with 1:50 left when Lauren Dittmer made a trey from the left wing.
The Lady Panthers never trailed the rest of the way and Avery Simmons responded with a 3-pointer of her own on the ensuing possession and then Addison Bjorn scored a transition layup to help Park Hill South take a 18-12 lead after one quarter.
The Lady Wildcats didn’t score a basket until there was 3:47 left in the second quarter and the Lady Panthers took a 33-16 advantage at halftime. Park Hill South had a sluggish start to the second half, not scoring a basket until Ava Miles drove into the paint with 3:39 left to make the score 37-23.
Up to that point, the Lady Panthers had scored only two points on four free throw attempts. The Miles layup ignited a Park Hill South run that started with three consecutive buckets in the fast break by Bjorn.
Park Hill South led 44-25 by the time the third quarter ended en route to the 27-point win. Park Hill South will now be playing in the Nixa Invitational this week, starting with a matchup with Republic (13-2) on Jan. 19.