In the last two seasons, the Park Hill boys’ basketball team has finished with exactly 16 wins and averaged 65.9 points per game and with last season’s four leading scorers coming back, the Trojans are expected to be an offensive juggernaut yet again.
Park Hill senior Kendrick Bell dunks the basketball in the Trojans’ season opening loss when they poured out 95 total points.
The three returning senior starters are twin brothers Kendrick and Marqueas Bell and point guard Ty Schreck. That trio combined for 44.1 points per game last winter and Gavin Schaag – who opened up this season with 27 points and seven made 3-pointers – shot 33 percent from deep and scored 5.2 points per game off the bench in his sophomore campaign.
“Obviously the Bell twins have been playing together their entire lives so they’re very familiar with each other, but Gavin Schagg and Ty Schrek are two other kids that have had a lot of time on the court together,” Park Hill head boys’ basketball coach Chad Jones said. “Our nucleus is pretty strong; we feel pretty confident that the chemistry will be good this year and that the guys have a good feel for each other.”
Marqueas Bell was one of the leading scorers among all players in the metro area last winter, scoring 19.7 points with 54 total made 3-pointers on an efficient 39.4 percent. Alongside his brother and two other experienced Trojans, the senior will be joined by Savannah transfer Dayton Howard, who had an exceptional football season and has been inserted into the starting lineup.
“The newcomer of Dayton Howard helps as well with a little size and then there’s Desire (Tonye-Nyemeck) off the bench, who is a super athletic 6’3 kid that’ll provide a spark for us as well. Then a couple other guys off the bench will be Akoi Akoi and Cameron Jones,” Jones said.
Howard is a senior, while Tonye-Nyemeck and Akoi are juniors and Jones is a sophomore. Park Hill will be in the cutthroat Kansas City Suburban Conference Silver Division and Class 6 District 8 Tournament.
“The district that we’re in is the toughest district probably in the state; when the preseason rankings came out, there were five teams ranked in the top-10 or at least getting votes. Staley, North Kansas City and Oak Park all are in the top-5 in the state and in the city, so it’s going to be a grind every single week since we play them all,” Jones said.