Park Hill junior Desire Tonye-Nyemeck goes up for a dunk attempt in the first half of the Trojan’s sole loss of the William Jewell Classic on Dec. 27.
LIBERTY – For the third straight season, Park Hill (6-4) walked away from the William Jewell Holiday Classic Boys’ Basketball Tournament with a win in its final game.
Coming off a third-place finish in 2021 and a first-place finish in 2022, Park Hill won the consolation side of the Nelson Division. The Trojans got upset in the first round to a team which entered the day with a 5-game losing skid.
Blue Springs (2-10) had a big second half to stun Park Hill 51-41 on Dec. 27. The Wildcats scored the last seven points of the second quarter to take a 28-23 lead at halftime, never looking back.
Park Hill struggled shooting the ball on the day, only converting on 37.2 percent from the field, 23.5 percent from deep and 45.5 percent from the charity stripe. Cameron Jones ended with 13 points and Desire Tonye-Nyemeck had 11 points.
Park Hill bounced back in its next game, defeating Belton (1-9) 53-47 on Dec. 28. Gavin Schaag knocked down four of the Trojans’ nine 3-pointers for a game-high 18 points.
Isaiah Caston and Hagan West both drilled a pair of triples and Legend Freelon made one of his two attempts from deep. Tonye-Nyemeck snatched 13 rebounds, blocked two shots and forced three steals.
Park Hill had a comfortable win in the consolation championship coming out on top of Van Horn (1-10) by a score of 60-39 on Dec. 30. The Trojans only had 10 turnovers – which is a season-low – and four players scored in double figures.
Schaag scored 12 points to go with four assists and blocks, making all four of his free throws. Jones also had 12 points and forced two of the Trojans’ eight steals.
Akoi Akoi surpassed single digits for only the third time in his career, tallying 10 points and two steals. Donovan Fonville had a career day, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.
The Trojans have had a rocky start to the season but have now won four of their last five games. Park Hill will head to Park Hill South (5-5) to take on the rival Panthers on Jan. 5.