Spending the whole season as one of the most threatening teams in Class 6, the Park Hill South girls’ basketball team (25-3) is one step closer to making it to state as it has advanced to its first district championship since 2019.
The Lady Panthers have officially won 17 games in a row – which is just two victories shy of last year’s total wins – more recently with a 59-40 triumph over St. Joseph’s Central (17-9) on March 4. The Lady Indians sent Park Hill South home in the same round last year, but history didn’t repeat itself in this rematch, which was also the first matchup between the teams of the season.
“I think the thing for them was we played them so many times last year and then we haven’t played them this year,” Park Hill South girls’ basketball coach Josh Dorr said. “I think that was something that they were excited about that they were playing a new team instead of playing a team for a third time.”
Lauren Dittmer (#11) and Avery Simmons (#23) celebrate and pat Regan Williams (#24) on the back after she converts on a tough layup and a foul in the Class 6 District 8 Semifinal win over St Joseph’s Central on March 4.
While Park Hill South is the top-seed in the Class 6 District 8 Tournament and Central was the fourth-seed, the Lady Indians opened up with a 7-0 lead. The Lady Panthers called a timeout and regrouped, responding with a 19-2 run until a buzzer beating 3-pointer by Teegan Broaden.
There seemed to be a lid on the basket in the second quarter as neither team had much success on offense, with a jumper by Regan Williams with 3:30 on the clock being the first made field goal in the frame. Williams and Addison Bjorn both scored 10 points each in the first 16 minutes as Park Hill South was up 24-18 at the break.
“I think offensively, we kind of settled down in the second half. They threw out a defense that we haven’t received a whole lot before in the first half, so we were able to kind of just reset, take a breath and say ‘okay, here’s what you need to do to move it around.’ Here’s the spots are open, that kind of stuff and we were able to get out in the break a little bit,” Dorr said.
Central brought the game to 26-21 in the opening minute of the second half before Avery Simmons scored seven of the next nine Park Hill South points and it went back up 35-23. Simmons, Tatum Kells and Bjorn all scored off an assist in the final 1:37 in the third quarter and Central trailed 45-28 before going on to win by 19.
“We’ve got some things we’ve been stressing with them all, just kind of do something new but also to keep doing what we were doing and do what makes us successful, playing defense around the floor, crashing the boards and sharing the ball. Those two (Bjorn and Miles) are kind of rookies and as long as we keep doing those things, I think we’ll be in any game,” Dorr said.
Park Hill South opened up the postseason with a dominant 71-28 routing over Oak Park (4-23) on March 2. Bjorn poured out 20 points and six rebounds, while Simmons had 16 points and two steals.
The Lady Panthers forced 16 steals on the night, led by Williams who had a career-high eight steals along with 13 points, four rebounds and five assists. Ava Miles was the fourth Park Hill South player to score double digits as the freshman had 10 points, while Ava Kells had seven points and three rebounds off the bench.
Park Hill South was scheduled to take on Staley (19-9) in the Class 6 District 8 Championship on March 7. The Lady Panthers won both regular season matchups by 10 and 15 points after losing the prior seven matchups dating back to 2019.