Park Hill South seniors Lauren Dittmer and Avery Simmons walk off the Liberty High School court with the Class 6 District 8 Runners-Up plaque following the 57-43 loss to Staley on March 5.
LIBERTY – Meeting up for the third time in 21 days, Park Hill South (15-12) and Staley’s (27-2) most recent matchup was the most important one, being the Class 6 District 8 Girls’ Basketball Championship at Liberty High School on March 4.
A pair of scoring droughts in the first and fourth quarters for Park Hill South were crucial in the second consecutive district championship appearance. The Lady Panthers went down 9-0 with multiple turnovers to start the game and only made three fourth quarter buckets in pursuit to losing 57-43.
Trailing 14-5 after one period and 19-7 two minutes into the second quarter, Park Hill South closed out the first half on a 12-3 run to make the score 20-19. Avery Simmons kicked it off with a transition bucket, followed by Addison Bjorn scoring or assisting the next eight points and Ava Kells capping it off with a putback layup with 1:15 to play in the half.
Simmons added a pair of free throws to start the second half and the Lady Panthers’ offense continued to pour out points to put them ahead. Simmons added five more points in the ensuing three minutes and Park Hill South led 30-24.
Staley called a timeout amidst the 23-7 Park Hill South run dating back to the first half and the No. 1 seed responded with seven of the next eight points to tie the game at 31. Staley sophomore Ava Miles knocked down a 3-pointer with right under 30 seconds left in the third quarter, which ended up being a huge momentum swing.
Bjorn scored all three of Park Hill South’s field goals in the final eight minutes as the team struggled to put the ball in the hoop. Simmons shot 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in the final quarter – along with Kells making a free throw – for the other points and the senior fouled out with 29.3 seconds left.
Bjorn ended with 13 points and 15 rebounds, surpassing 1,000 career points with her last basket, despite only being a sophomore and playing in 54 total games. Simmons did the same in the previous matchup against Staley, a 10-point loss in the final road game of the regular season on Feb. 21.
Only two Park Hill South girls had scored that many points in a career before this season, making Simmons and Bjorn both reaching that feat all the more impressive. Simmons finished her high school career with 1,066 points following an 18-point outing in the district championship.
Park Hill South showed some resiliency in its first two postseason games to reach the district title game as the No. 3 seed, starting with a 54-45 win over Liberty (12-14) on Feb. 28. That was the third matchup in 13 days, and it was a two-point game going into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Panthers scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to come away with the win as Simmons scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half. Bjorn ended with 24 points and grabbed 20 rebounds – which tied the school record, set by Alecia Westbrook in 2015.
In the Class 6 District 8 Semifinals, Park Hill South took down Liberty North (25-3) on March 1. After leading by 14 points through three quarters, the Lady Panthers survived 74-72 behind 21 points by Bjorn and Simmons; Kells finished with 20 points, which was her career high.
In addition to Simmons, seniors Maggie Schmidt and Lauren Dittmer will leave the program. Schmidt was a starter and Dittmer’s season ended early with a hand injury, only playing in 13 games.
Having to replace three starters from last year’s squad that was a point away from the Class 6 Final Four, Park Hill South had some ups and downs this season. Out of the Lady Panthers’ 12 losses, six came against a top-5 ranked team in Class 6 and three came to out-of-state opponents.