What we learned at 5A … Saturday’s LIVE blog
The 5A third-place and state championships are being held today at the Topeka Expo Center.
Third-place game
Goddard-Eisenhower 64, Wichita Heights 57 (final)
Continue to be impressed with Wichita Heights 2019 point guard K’Vonte Baker. He is lightning quick, getting to the bucket and is among the best pure passers I’ve seen this season in the Kansas area. At the half, Baker has nine points and four rebounds. …
Matt Pile is a man among boys. He has two dunks, 12 points, six boards, a block and an assist at the half and is 5 for 6 from the field. He mostly had offers from other small D1’s when he chose Omaha, but there might be some programs who have missed the boat on this kid. He does get a lot of his offense from point-blank range and will probably need to be able to step out a little more than what we’ve seen in Topeka.
Speaking of Baker’s passing, the kid just threw a spectacular no-look behind the back pass on the fast break for an easy lay-up. He’s also a football standout, but he’s going to start making college basketball coaches take notice.
Heights 6’4 2017 Decquan Richarson is working hard on the boards in this one. He’s an undersized big guy, but is battling in the paint and has seven hard fought rebounds.
Finally, 6’3 2018 forward Tanner King had a terrific game finishing with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. He was especially tough around the basket, scoring a host of tough chances in the paint.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Shawnee Heights 66, KC Schlagle 49
This was an impressive run by Shawnee Heights in Topeka as the Falcons ran away with the 5A state championship over Schlagle. The star of the game was Missouri Western recruit Trey Brown. One of the state’s top point guards, Brown scored a game-high 21 points, including a 5 for 10 shooting performance from long distance and led Heights with seven rebounds.
Shawnee Heights finished the game with nine 3-pointers as Jesse Moss, a 6’3 2017 guard, made three 3-pointers and finished with 12.
The Falcons are among the best passing teams we’ve seen this season. They can be flashy, but also throw very fundamentally sound passes, are willing to share the ball and ran a slew of well executed back door plays.