To make a statement, the unranked Park Hill Trojans needed to the poke the bear a little bit.
The bear? The No. 3-ranked Class 5 team and previously unranked Park Hill South Panthers.
Considering the rivalry game, the task required the Trojans’ ‘A’ game. Toss in the fact that the game took place inside the revamped Kemper Arena — now called HyVee Arena — the Park Hill basketball fans, and all others who ventured to Hy-Vee Arena to witness the first varsity action there were in for a treat.
Turned out the underdog Trojans (6-2) were up for the task. Park Hill took the Panthers (4-1) to the brink and upset its arch-nemesis, 53-48, handing Park Hill South its first loss in the process.
“It’s a big rivalry and we’ve been looking forward to this all season,” said senior forward Nic Zeil, who led the Trojans with a game-high 17 points. “There has been a lot of smack talk in how (Park Hill South) was going to blow us out. It was just great.”
The Trojans were certainly motivated, especially after going down 10-8 after the first quarter, 20-16 at halftime and again at 33-28 after the third frame.
“This is a huge win for us tonight,” Park Hill coach Chad Jones said. “On top of that it’s a rivalry game, so it was pretty electric. Just to come out on top, we had some bounces go our way, so we were pretty fortunate. The kids played extremely hard tonight.”
“It was a defensive battle,” South coach Danny Parra said. “One that probably could’ve gone either way. One or two shots go in for us or go in for them, it probably could’ve gone either way. It was an even game that went back and forth.”
Park Hill led only once in the opening minutes before taking its second lead when Zeil cashed in on a pair of free throws with 4:30 remaining.
But the Panthers’ Desi Williams scored a two-point bucket before Nebraska-Omaha signee Lamel Robinson made a 3-pointer for a 44-41 lead.
After a timeout, the Trojans made a game-changing 10-2 run, spanning from 2:50 remaining to the 13.7-second mark. Ryan Graves hit a big trey to give the Trojans a 46-44 lead, only their third lead of the game at the time.
Nyk Bryant, who finished with 13 points, added four points, Zeil had a two-point basket and Tavian Josenberger converted on a free throw during the crucial game-clinching run that had the Trojans up 51-46 with just 37 seconds remaining.
South’s Dylan Brougham went 2-for-2 on charities to cut the lead to 51-48 with 30 seconds left, but after the Panthers didn’t create a turnover they were forced to foul with 13.7 remaining. Zeil made 1-of-2 freebies for a 52-48 lead.
After a South timeout with nine ticks left, Robinson eventually was fouled and missed both free throws, and Park Hill’s Ryan Kiser iced the contest with a made free throw for the 5-point win.
Zeil, who scored the first points in Hy-Vee Arena history, was a key cog for the Trojans.
“It feels great,” he said of the win. “Since it’s a rivalry and since we have young guys on our team, it’s great to get it for them and our seniors to have this final regular-season win against South, it feels to beat the No. 3 team.”
This season, of course, a rematch is possible as the two sides are in the same district tournament.
“That’s something we mentioned in the locker room,” Parra said. “Hopefully we get to play Park Hill again.”
The Panthers played Friday night at Lee’s Summit before taking on Smithville as the top seed in the Patterson Division of the William Jewell Tournament on Dec. 26.
The Trojans will play Center at 9 p.m. Dec. 27 as the No. 3 seed in the Cardinal Division at William Jewell.