Ellis, Heights win title
By Brent Maycock
March 14, 2009
EMPORIA — Perry Ellis may someday join the likes of former Wichita Heights legends Antoine Carr and Darnell Valentine in the NBA.
Saturday, the Heights freshman phenom joined another club to which the former Falcons belong: State champion.
Benefitting from nine points and 20 rebounds from Ellis and getting 19 points from Austin Bahner and 17 from Dorrian Roberts, Wichita Heights captured its first state title since 1977 — a team led by Carr and Valentine. The Falcons got off to a blazing start and downed crosstown rival Wichita Southeast 73-58 in the Class 6A state championship game at White Auditorium.
"We told the kids we weren't going to peak until our last game," Heights coach Joe Auer said. "And I thought we had a peak performance."
Especially early. Heights blew out to a 37-21 halftime lead on the strength of 46-percent shooting in the opening half. Roberts had the hot hand in particular, hitting 5 of 6 shots, including all three 3-point attempts, and scoring 13 first-half points. Bahner also made all three of his 3-point attempts en route to his 19-point outing.
Heights had a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Heights finished207 of 10 from 3-point range in beating Southeast, the defending champions, for the third time this season.
"We've been so close, so many times," Auer said. "The kids probably don't understand that, but for me it was a big feeling of relief, to get that monkey off our back."
Joe Mitchell made 11 of 23 shots, including 9 of 15 in the second half, and scored a game-high 26 for Southeast.
Ellis didn't have a huge scoring game, drawing double and triple teams every time he touched the ball. But he was big on the boards and his presence created open shots for his teammates and they usually knocked them down.
By KEN STEPHENS
CatchItKansas.com
EMPORIA - Before the basketball season began, all the Wichita City League coaches had the Heights boys among the top three in the league. But nearly all were picking the Falcons b ehind defending state champion Southeast and East.
Heights proved them all wrong, winning the league and on Saturday putting an emphatic cap on its season, defeating Southeast for the third time this season and by the widest margin yet, 73-58, to capture the Class 6A state championship.
"We proved we're the best team in the City League and the state of Kansas today," coach Joe Auer said. "For20Dorrian (Roberts) and Austin (Bahner) to have the game they had today ... for them to go out on top like that, I couldn't ask for a better parting gift."
The two senior starters, Bahner had a team-high 19 points, 14 of them in the second half, while Roberts lit it up in the first half, when he scored 13 of his 17.
It was Heights' second state championship. The first was a long time ago, in 1977.
"It's fulfilling for our school," Roberts said. "It's been 32 years. It's a big accomplishment with what we've come through in our freshman and sophomore years. This has been a goal since we played East at the start of the season. To finish by playing our rival Southeast and win state is the best thing that has ever happened in my life."
Heights finished 24-1, losing only to Hutchinson by one point in the first round of the McPherson Invitational on20Jan. 22.
On Saturday, Heights and Southeast both came out sizzling. After Southeast's Joe Mitchell scored on=2 0a layup, Bahner answered with a 3-pointer. Mitchell matched that with his own 3-pointer, and then Roberts hit two treys himself.
At that point, it was 9-5 Heights and neither team had missed.
It remained a tight, back-and-forth-game until the 4:51 mark, when Roberts hit his third trey, his 11th point of the game, to give the Falcons a 14-11 lead.
It was a lead they would never relinquish.
Southeast cooled off, scoring only two points over nearly five minutes. Meanwhile, other Heights players - Perry Ellis, Evan Wessel, Thomas Bland and Dreamis Smith - got into the scoring act and th e Falcons built a 10-point lead, 23-13 with 1:35 remaining in the first quarter.
The Falcons continued to build on that lead in the second quarter and it reached as many as 19 points at 37-18 with 2:19 to go in the half.
The teams went to the locker room at halftime with Heights leading 37-21.
Southeast=2 0coach Carl Taylor started Ronald Cobb in place of Tayler Rock in the second half, and the Buffaloes immediately went inside to the big man for a cou ple of baskets. Mitchell made a 16-foot jumper and then Deontae Hayden hit a shot to make it a 10-point game, 39-29, with 4:35 left in the third quarter.
But that's where Heights drew the line in the sand. Southeast would get no closer.
Ellis made a free throw and then Bahner got going, scoring Heights' next eight points.
"It's our last game, and we wanted to go all out," said Bahner.
Mitchell tried to keep Southeast in it, scoring the Buffaloes' next 12 points himself. But throughout the second half, when Mitchell scored 21 of his game-high 26, Heights always had a response, and then some.
And when Bahner hit a layup for the last of his points with 3:39 remaining in the game, Heights had its largest lead, 21 points at 68-47, and the game was out of reach for Southeast.
Bahner made six of his nine shots, including all three of his 3-point attempts, and Roberts was six of 10, including 3-for-4 from long range.
"Dorrian and B ahner shot lights out," Taylor said. "... The better team won."
Ellis, only a freshman and already one of the best - if not the best player - in the state, had only nine points while being double- and triple-teamed every time he touched the ball. But he owned the glass, pulling down 20 rebounds and giving Heights a 49-36 rebounding advantage.
"I told the kids not to peak until the last game," Auer said, "and I thought we had a peak performance today."
Southeast finished its season 20-5.
"Our goal was to get back here and defend our title," Taylor said. "We didn't get it done, but we did get back here. I'm proud of them."