by joanna

*Follow me on Twitter — @joannachadwick

Video is below along with the game box.
Heights beats BV Northwest 56-40.

BV Northwest (17-8) 9 7 12 12 _ 40
Wichita Heights (23-2) 10 18 13 15 – 56
BV NORTHWEST: Brashears 6-14 3-3 16, Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Fisher 5-13 2-2 16, Bugarinovic 1-7 0-0 2, Bond 1-2 0-0 2, Hatchett 0-0 0-0 0, McInerny 0-0 0-0 0, Fugate 0-1 2-2 2, Luebbert 0-0 0-0 0, Hooks 0-2 0-0 0, Miller 0-1 0-0 0, Lang 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-45 7-7 40.
WICHITA HEIGHTS: Dobbins 1-7 1-2 4, Wessel 2-9 3-7 7, Smith 4-9 1-4 10, Moore 3-7 1-2 7, Ellis 7-10 5-7 20, DeGrafenread 2-4 2-2 6, Countee 0-0 0-0 0, Bradley 0-1 0-0 0, Owens 0-0 0-0 0, Riley 1-1 0-0 2, Cross 0-0 0-0 0, Jefferson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-48 13-24 56.
Three-point shooting _ BV Northwest 5-21 (Fisher 4-10, Brashears 1-6, Fugate 0-1, Hooks 0-1, Miller 0-1, Smith 0-2), Heights 3-16 (Ellis 1-2, Smith 1-4, Dobbins 1-6, Bradley 0-1, DeGrafenread 0-1, Wessel 0-1, Moore 0-1). Rebounds _ BV Northwest 27 (Bond 7), Heights 38 (Ellis 11).

7:43 p.m. — Heights layers yelling, repeat, repeat, repeat. The Falcons win 56-40.

7:40 p.m. — Heights is up 54-38, 31.9 seconds to go. All the reserves are in.

Perry Ellis interview

Dreamius Smith interview

Heights junior Evan Wessel interview

Heights sophomore Terrence Moore

Heights junior E.J. Dobbins

Heights fans sing I believe

7:35 p.m. — That’s probably why BV Northwest hasn’t had that defense. Heights broke full-court press with ease, getting easy lay-in from Terrence Moore.

Wessel at the line. He hits the first and the second. 54-38, 1:56 to go.

I just saw Auer smile at Terrence Moore as he took him out of the game.

7:33 p.m. – Evan Wessel just takes a charge. Nice play by the future Shocker. (Like how I threw that in there?) I’m not sure where this BV Northwest defense was for the first 28 minutes. They’re trapping and playing tight, doubling up Ellis, who just scored through a triple-team for 50-35 lead, 2:40 to go.

7:30 p.m. — Heights is up 48-33 with 4:28 to go, but it feels like a much bigger lead to me.

7:26 p.m. — Coach Auer calls a play, the ref thinks he says timeout. Auer’s looking at him, I called a play. Props to the ref — he reversed the call.

It’s 46-33 Heights, 5:11 to go.

7:24 p.m. — Terrence Moore has had two steals here. The kid is fast. Right in the passing lanes. It’s Heights 45-31.

7:19 p.m. — Jeff Lutz quote: This is not the best state title game I’ve seen.

Me: I agree.

Now, we still have a quarter to go. But it’s 41-28. It’s not up and down. It’s slow. Some great plays here and there. Heights has controlled so far. Will BV Northwest’s shooters start knocking the shots down? I can see it happen. If it does, we’ll have a game.

7:16 p.m. — Fisher drives inside, he scores and is hurt. He’s out. 41-28, 1:33 to go in the third.

7:14 p.m. – - Fisher hit a three for BV Northwest. Perry Ellis hits a three for Heights. You know he can hit those, right? It’s 41-26 Heights. Turnover BV Northwest, Smith with the steal. He goes for the alley-oop. The pass is off, still Heights ball.

Less than two minutes to go in the third. Wessel drives and is fouled.

7:11 p.m. — BV Northwest calls timeout after Fisher hits a three. 34-21, 4:10 to go in the third quarter. Heights is controlling this game, but BV Northwest’s three-point shooters have to be a concern because they’re such a threat.

7:09 p.m. — Heights is all over the boards on rebound. It’s two to three players rebounding every time. It’s Ellis battling Wessel for the board. It’s 34-18 after that Moore fastbreak basket. 4:41 to go. Heights misses a three, BV Northwest travels.

7:08 p.m. — Heights stats at the half: Ellis with 12 and 7, Smith with 5, DeGrafenread with 6. Heights shot 11 of 27 from the floor and 5 of 9 from the line. Heights had four turnovers.

BV Northwest was led by Brashears and Fishers’ five points. Smith, Bugarinovic and Bond each had two points. BV Northwest shot 6 of 20 from the floor, 2 of 6 from three and had eight turnovers.

7:06 p.m. — I beat my boss’ deadline, ya’ll. Aren’t you proud of me? So now I can update you on everything you want to know about the title game.

Like Dreamius Smith hitting that three-pointer to open the third. 31-16 Heights, 7:02 to go in the third. And Tyler Brashears scoring in the lane.

6:53 p.m. — Tyler Brashears hits his first three — this cat is dangerous. It’s 26-16 Heights with 35.2 seconds to go. Degraffenread is at the line. He hits the first. He hits the second. 28-16.

6:50 p.m. — E.J. Dobbins hits a three, one possession after Ellis converts a three-point play. It’s 25-13, Heights 1:55 to go in the half.

6:46 p.m. — BV Northwest calls another timeout after Dreamius Smith hits a jumper to put Heights up 19-9 with 4:29 to go in the first half. A ref came over to the table during a timeout and said, Exercise. He must not be used to this ridiculous pace.

Two fouls have been called — on each team — by refs trailing the play by a fair distance. It’s fast, eveyrone.

It’s 19-11 now.

6:42 p.m. — Heights’ Dreamius Smith (it’s pronounced Dreamis, by the way) scores on a fastbreak following a steal and it’s 13-9, 7:10 to go in the half. BV Northwest calls timeout.

6:38 p.m. — Heights leads 10-9 after the first quarter. Aaron DeGrafenread hits a jumper in the lane with four seconds to go in the period.

6:31 p.m. — I’m supposed to be writing my girls story. Shh. Don’t tell my boss. I’m also watching this boys game. Its’ 6-5 Heights. Perry Ellis has had two great plays inside, including a dunk after a Heights steal. 2:48 to go in the first.

6:27 p.m. — Heights opens game of the 6A championship with a steal and a missed fastbreak. BV Northwest Brett Fisher hits a three, Heights scores inside with Perry Ellis.

Heights-Olathe South girls box below:

Wichita Heights (23-2) 16 8 10 15 _ 49
Olathe South (24-1) 16 10 16 12 _ 54

WICHITA HEIGHTS: Chandler 1-2 0-1 2, Pope 0-9 1-3 1, Chisom 2-5 0-0 4, Richard 5-8 4-10 14, Bowen 8-12 1-2 17, Lynch 0-0 0-0 0, Palmer 0-2 0-0 0, Ivy 0-0 0-0 0, Sims 5-11 0-0 11. Totals 21-49 6-16 49.
OLATHE SOUTH: Palu 0-4 4-6 4, K. Balcom 4-11 6-8 14, Bell 1-4 1-2 4, Rinehart 2-4 1-1 5, Knight 7-11 8-9 23, M. Balcom 1-3 1-2 4, McKnight 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-37 21-28 54.
Three-point shooting _ Wichita Heights 1-11 (Sims 1-3, Palmer 0-1, Chisom 0-3, Pope 0-4), Olathe South 3-9 (Knight 1-1, Bell 1-2, M. Balcom 1-3, K. Balcom 0-1, Palu 0-2). Rebounds _ Wichita Heights 26 (Bowen 10), Olathe South 33 (K. Balcom, Knight 7).

Cheney girls beat Concordia, without Merissa Quick, and win the 4A title. A huge upset.

Olathe South wins 54-49.

5:30 p.m. — Bowen scores her first points of the second half, scoring inside, is fouled. She makes the free throw, Heights calls timeout. It’s 54-49, 20 seconds to go.

5:29 p.m. — Chandler fouls out. Bell hits one of two, up 54-46.

5:26 p.m. — Pope fouls out, 50.6 seconds to go. Knight at the line. She hits the first, misses the second. But Kelsey Balcom gets the rebound. It’s now 53-46 Olathe South. Bell’s at the line.

5:24 p.m. — 1:11 to go in the game. Olathe South leads 51-46 and has the ball. Can Heights do it?

5:20 p.m. — Tahlia Pope misses first two of three free throws, then Taylor Chandler gets a steal and Sims scores. 47-44. Then Bowen steal, Sims scores in the lane. 47-46, 2:42 to go.

5:16 p.m. — Olathe South beat press and scored in transition. It’s 47-39. 4:20 to go.

5:10 p.m. — Heights has cut into Olathe South’s lead, down 42-37. Taylor Chandler just forced a 10-second call on the turnover. Olathe South called time with 6:40 to go.

5:08 p.m. — Chisom scores on a jumper to open the fourth, then Bowen blocks Kelsey Blacom ’s shot. Brooke Rinehart from Olathe South picks up two quick fouls, she has four.7 minutes to go.

Now another foul on Olathe South on Megan Balcom. It’s 42-36 Olathe South.

5:07 p.m. — Heights is running out of time. The mistakes that the Falcons are making are costly because they’re either through turnovers that Olathe South turns into points or fouling Olathe South, which leads to made free throws.

Olathe South leads42-34 after three.

5:04 p.m. — Heights is getting caught on defense, Olathe South is getting past them in the half-court and in transition. Also beating Heights on the boards. 12 seconds to go in the first. Palu at the line. She missed the first, made the second 42-34.

5:03 p.m. — Olathe South up 41-34 on Heights with 1:25 to go in the third. Heights has thrown the ball away on several possessions

4:56 p.m. — Mary Sims hits Heights’ first three, then Richard drives inside. But Knight answers, driving inside, is fouled by Pope and heads to the line. She hits it, 35-30, 4:16 to go in the third.

4:53 p.m. — Olathe South has scored three straight baskets in transition. They’re getting their hands on Heights’ shots and Heights isn’t finishing. Pulliam calls timeout, it’s 32-25, 5:45 to go in the third quarter.

4:42 p.m. — Neither team shot particularly well in the first half. But Olathe South hit three threes in the second quarter, the game’s only threes. And they came from Ebonee Bell, Natalie Knight and Megan Balcom.

Heights has attempted four threes, no luck. Jhasmin Bowen has been a beast in the lane. She has 14 points, 7 rebounds. While Olathe South has foul trouble — Kelsey Balcom and Brooke Rinehart both have two fouls (post players), Heights’ Tahlia Pope and Taylor Chandler each have two, as well.

4:37 p.m. — Its’ tied at 22-all. Bowen goes out for a rest. Man, she is getting beat up in the lane. Megan Balcom hits a three with 1:23 to go.

4:36 p.m. — Great game. Seriously, you should be here.

4:34 p.m. — Heights is switching in and out of man and zone defense. Heights gets a stop and a rebound but then throws a home run pass and it goes out of bounds.

4:32 p.m. — Heights has gone to a zone defense. I’m surprised because of Olathe South’s strong perimeter game. But the one possession Heights did it on, it had Olathe South pushed back out of their comfort zone to shoot the three and Richard came up with a steal. Bowen scored off her own miss for the 20-19 lead, 4:46 to go in the half.

4:30 p.m. — It’s 19-18 Olathe South. 5:55 to go in the first half.

4:24 p.m. — Two concerns for Heights — Pope has two fouls, the Falcons haven’t hit a perimeter shot.

End of the first quarter. It’s tied at 16-all after Bowen scores in the lane at the buzzer. Knight has 10 points, Bowen 8.

4:20 p.m. — Olathe South’s two big girls, Rinehart and Kelsey Balcom have two fouls apiece. Score is tied at 12-all. Two minutes to go in first.

4:15 p.m. — Lots of fouls. 7 total. Natalie Knight at the line for Olathe South. She hits both. 8-6 OS lead.

4:13 p.m. — Two minutes in — Taylor Chandler has two fouls, Olathe South leads 6-4.

3:49 p.m. — I’ve been making lots of people smile today by handing out packs of gum. But I give all the credit to Mr. Hilton, a longtime Heights fan who hands out packs and packs of gum. He told me a great story of how he got started, that he saw someone else handing out gum to coaches and saw how happy they were. He said he’d start doing it, too. So when his granddaughter, Cady, played at Heights in the 1990s, he started doing it with one of the Falcons assistants.

Now he hands multiple packs out to all coaches at Heights. Somehow I’ve been included in that, and it’s about the sweetest thing ever.

I also got hugs from my favorite crew of fans — Linwood Sexton, Charley Gill, George Shaw.

Former co-worker, Duane Frazier, is in the house to watch the games. Always good to see him. He was a great co-worker.

Bob Lutz is here, as well. He’ll be writing on the games. Of course, photographer Fernando Salazar is here. He’s so darn good and he’s busting his tail getting video and great photos.

3:15 p.m. — 45 minutes from game time! Heights and Olathe South girls are on the floor, waiting to start stretching.

1:11 p.m. — BV North’s Weston Ehlers, with time running out, spots up for a three, with a hand in his face, and knocks it down from the left wing. That gave BV North the 60-57 lead. Kyle Wiggins’ three at the buzzer was short.

Ehlers finished with 26 points, Wiggins had 21, Williams 9.

BV North (17-8) 14 14 13 19 _ 60

Leavenworth (17-8) 19 10 12 16 _ 57

BV NORTH: McCarthy 1-2 0-0 2, Lawless 0-1 0-0 0, Ehlers 10-16 0-0 26, McLerran 3-10 2-2 10, Crooker 4-10 2-2 10, Dolan 1-2 0-0 3, Thornton 0-0 0-0 0, Elliott 0-1 0-0 0, Peterson 1-2 0-0 3, Pollard 0-0 0-0 0, Alexander 1-4 0-0 2, Boehler 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 23-50 4-4 60.

LEAVENWORTH: Zeck 2-4 1-2 6, Dean 1-2 0-1 2, Wiggins 8-14 0-1 21, Greenberg 3-5 2-2 8, Williams 4-9 1-2 9, Padgett 3-10 0-0 7, Brundy 0-0 0-0 0, Dougherty 2-5 0-0 4, Banach 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-49 4-8 57.

Three-point shooting _ BV North 10-19 (Ehlers 6-9, McLerran 2-4, Dolan 1-2, Peterson 1-2, McCarthy 0-1, Crooker 0-1), Leavenworth 7-16 (Wiggins 5-7, Zeck 1-2, Padgett 1-3, Williams 0-3, Greenberg 0-1).

1:03 p.m. — Nino Williams just had a spin move to the basket that was gorgeous. And then BV North’s Weston Ehlers comes down the other end and hits a three. He has 23. Score is tied at 53-all, 2 minutes to go. Williams has 7 points, 5 rebounds. Wiggins has 21 points.

12:53 p.m. — Leavenworth and BV North are tied at 41-all after the third quarter. Nino Williams has three fouls and has 2 points, 4 rebounds.

12:29 p.m. — Leavenworth’s Kyle Wiggins just gave me goosebumps, and probably everyone here. At the buzzer, he puts up a deep three. It seemed to hang up there for ever. It was truly like a rainbow. And then it dropped through the net, seemingly touching nothing. The refs were even talking about it as they walked off the court. It was a thing of beauty.

With Nino Williams on the bench for the final 12 minutes of the first half, Leavenworth leads 30-28. Wiggins has 18 points.

12:22 p.m. — BV North hits three straight threes to open the period, two from Sean McLerran for 23-19 lead. Grant Greenberg’s basket in the lane stopped the 9-0 run. It’s 23-21 BV North, 4 minutes to go in the second quarter.

12:16 p.m. — Leavenworth 19-14 after first quarter.

12:14 p.m. — Wiggins hits another, he has 14 points, Leavenworth leads 19-14 in final minute of period. Weston Ehlers has 10 points for BV North

12:07 p.m. — Leavenworth’s Kyle Wiggins has taken three threes, he’s made all three 11-7 Leavenworth, 4:45 to go in first.

11:32 a.m. — I caught the end of the Dodge City-Washburn Rural third-place girls game. Washburn Rural’s Maggie Holmberg put on a shot. She finished with 40 points, two short of the 6A record, and was 9 of 10 from three-point range at the half. She finished 11 of 18 from three, 12 of 20 from the floor. Kesha Buckner led Dodge City with 13 points, 10 rebounds.

Box is below:

Washburn Rural (21-4) 28 16 16 16 _ 76

Dodge City (20-5) 14 13 8 26 _ 61

WASHBURN RURAL: Bordewick 4-17 1-2 11, Zordel 3-4 4-5 10, Lewis 2-6 2-3 6, Scott 0-4 1-2 1, Holmberg 12-20 5-7 40, Michaelis 0-1 0-0 0, Ladenburger 1-4 0-0 2, Aschenbrenner 2-3 0-0 4, Singer 0-0 2-4 2. Totals 24-59 15-23 40.

DODGE CITY: Ortiz 3-16 5-6 11, Briggs 3-10 0-0 8, Ehrlich 3-6 1-2 9, Buckner 4-9 3-4 13, Thompson 4-11 0-2 10, Stephenson 2-4 0-0 6, Estrada 0-1 0-0 0, Alarcon 0-0 0-0 0, Schinstock 0-0 2-2 2, Pencis 1-1 0-0 2, Lampe 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-58 11-14 61.

Three-point shooting _ Washburn Rural 13-31 (Holmberg 11-18, Bordewick 2-12, Michaelis 0-1), Dodge City 8-26 (Stephenson 2-2, Ehrlich 2-3, Buckner 2-4, Briggs 2-9, Thompson 0-2, Ortiz 0-6). Rebounds_Washburn Rural 40 (Lewis 10), Dodge City 37 (Buckner 10).