Wichita Heights drained back-to-back 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter to pull away from Olathe South, as Heights went on to win 54-34 in the girls championship game of the Class 6A Tournament.
It is Wichita Heights’ second state title in a row, the fourth in the last six years and fifth overall, the most in Class 6A.
Heights outscored Olathe South 16-9 in the third quarter to turn a tie game at halftime into a 33-26 lead at the end of three quarters. After Jadhon Kerr hit two free throws to pull South to within five at 33-28, Amanda Orloske and Shereka Copeland each hit baseline 3-pointers for Heights to open up an 11-point lead, and Heights rolled from there.
Heights went 13-of-14 from the free-throw line in the last 3 minutes to increase its lead out to 20 points.
Meanwhile, Olathe South managed just six points the rest of the way, missing 12 of its final 14 shots.
Wichita Heights began the game miserably, making just 1 of 15 shots from the field to fall behind 13-3 less than a minute into the second quarter.
Not helping Heights’ cause was the fact that star forward Savannah Ellis picked up her second foul less than 3 minutes into the opening period, which sent her to the bench for much of the remainder of the first half.
After being held scoreless for 6 minutes, 34 seconds, Heights regrouped when Ellis came back off the bench and scored on a put-back off a Copeland miss to give Heights just its second basket of the game to make it 13-5.
That sparked an 8-0 run that pulled Heights back to within two at 13-11, and after four Olathe South free throws, Heights closed the half on a 6-0 run capped by two Jennifer Lane free throws with 1.6 seconds left to tie the score at 17 headed into the break.