The Park Hill girls’ basketball team jumps up in celebratory fashion after taking down Park Hill South for the first time since 2021 on Feb. 8.
KANSAS CITY – It took two seasons and four tries, but Kennedi Dorrell was finally able to lead the Park Hill girls’ basketball team (8-12) past Park Hill South (10-9) on Feb. 8.
Since becoming the head coach for Park Hill last season, Park Hill South had beaten Dorrell in the first three matchups, including a 54-40 win on Jan. 18. Despite only making one second half field goal, the Lady Trojans were able to defeat the cross-town rivals 48-39.
“That’s our whole season, we’ve been struggling on the offensive end, but we’ve always hung our hat defensively, just the way we were able to take care of business in the first quarter,” Dorrell said. “Even when our shots aren’t falling, our defense is always going to be there.”
The third quarter only saw one made shot from the field, a layup by Avery Simmons 34 seconds in. On both sides, the rest of the points came from the charity stripe and Park Hill led 35-24 going into the last eight minutes.
Simmons made her fourth 3-pointer – tying a career-best – in the opening 30 seconds of the fourth quarter and Lydia Keller responded with a triple of her own with 6:46 on the clock for the only second-half Park Hill field goal. Park Hill South made some shots down the stretch but couldn’t overcome the home team shooting 8-of-10 from the line in the final 6:08.
Park Hill South sophomore Addison Bjorn finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in the loss to Park Hill.
“We’ve had close games before and a perfect example is (the 58-55 loss to) Liberty on Monday; we’re up, we’re feeling like we’re rolling and then they came back, and we lost. We talked about that this week. We’ve grown and are able to be composed in those tight situations like that and that’s a testament of the culture of our team,” Dorrell said.
Simmons was huge for the Lady Panthers, shooting 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from deep en route to a game-high 21 points but she fouled out with 1:14 left. She had scored or assisted on seven of her team’s 10 fourth quarter points up to then and the scoreboard read 40-34.
Until that point, Addison Bjorn and Simmons had all the points for Park Hill South as the rest of the team was 0-13 until Ava Kells scored a layup with 1:04 left. Bjorn had a putback bucket in the final minute for the Lady Panthers’ only points after that as Paige Barry iced the game with three made free throws in that timeframe.
Park Hill senior McKenna Sosna scored the first five points of the game and had two 3-pointers in the first quarter points to take an early lead over Park Hill South on Feb. 8.
“Those girls love each other; they would run through a brick wall for each other and that shows how close they are. Even now, they know exactly where each other is going to be on the court and they have each other’s back at all times,” Dorrell said.
Park Hill had a big first quarter to get a big enough lead to sit on, scoring the first eight points of the night. Simmons scored the first Park Hill South basket with a layup and a free throw following a foul with 3:47 left in the first quarter.
Park Hill South senior Avery Simmons tied her career-high fourth 3-pointer and scored 21 points on the night.
McKenna Sosna scored the first five points and two 3-pointers – including one with 39 seconds left – having eight points in the frame. Keller also made a triple and had seven points as the Lady Trojans led 17-5 after one.
“We’ve emphasized shooting after practice, and we got the gun out a couple of times this week and the girls got some extra shots. They were putting the extra work in, and it showed,” Dorrell said.
Sosna was efficient on the night, converting on 5-of-9 from the field, 4-of-6 from behind the arc and 6-of-8 from the charity stripe. She also had eight rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Keller finished with 15 points, including three makes from downtown. Bjorn’s six game stretch of recording a double-double was snapped with a 15-point, eight-rebound outing.
The win put the Lady Trojans’ home record 5-2 on the year after losing their first two, but they’ve struggled on the road. Park Hill headed to Lee’s Summit (14-9) with five consecutive road defeats on Feb. 12 and history repeated itself, resulting in a 51-28 loss.
As for Park Hill South, the loss to Park Hill was the first time being bested by an opponent with a losing record since falling to Platte County – who was 1-4 at the time – on Dec. 18, 2019. The Lady Panthers’ record in the Silver Division moved to 3-3 after the 58-52 conference loss with state ranked Staley (22-1) on Feb. 12.