Bubba Starling was a dominating force in leading Class 5A Gardner-Edgerton High School to the Tournament of Champions title game Saturday at the Dodge City Civic Center.
The superlative three-sport athlete garnered the accolades of the TOC individual sportsmanship and most inspirational player awards with his relentless play and rim-rattling slam dunks.
Yet Perry Ellis and his 6A top-ranked and defending state-champion Wichita Heights teammates took home the ultimate hardware, answering every rush the Blazers made.
If there had been a most outstanding player award given, it you would have to go to Ellis, the supremely talented 6-8 post player and the top-rated sophomore in the nation by rivals.com. Ellis poured in 27 points and hauled in 12 rebounds — his average coming into the TOC — as Heights (9-2) hammered out a 75-60 championship game victory.
“I told our players that this is the best preparation for the postseason that there is,” Heights coach Joe Auer said. “There was a great field, and we had to play well three days in a row. I like where we’re at right now at the halfway point of the season.
“We were after one thing,” Auer said, “and that was the giant trophy that we got to take home with us. I thought the tournament lived up to the pre-hype that it was given. We’re going to enjoy this all year. We haven’t won a midseason tournament since 2000.
Terrance Moore, an oversight on the all-tournament team, added 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, and Evan Wessel had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Falcons.
“(Saturday) was very typical of what we did when we play well,” Auer said. “I thought (guard EJ) Dobbins and Moore came out and really set an aggressive tempo for us, attacking the basket and running our half-court offense to perfection early.
“I thought Perry, probably better than any time in his career, ran the floor and he was track athlete in the middle of that floor and we encouraged him to do that. All tournament, we withstood runs. That’s a great team (Gardner-Edgerton) we just played and they never backed off and always kept coming. We never let them erase the great start that we had.”
Auer lauded the play of Starling, also regarded as one of the top junior quarterbacks in the state and a budding baseball prospect. Kansas State University is recruiting him as a quarterback, and it wouldn’t hurt for Frank Martin’s Kansas State basketball program to take a gander, either.
“He’s a tremendous athlete and a unique player,” Auer said of Starling. “He was a tremendous challenge for us. “Langrehr and Starling were tremendous, but they didn’t have any easy looks. Our kids wore them out, I thought.”
Connor Langrehr led Gardner-Edgerton (5-4) with 20 points, although he made only 8 of 19 shots, including 4-for-12 on 3s.
Blazers coach Jeff Langrehr says Starling “is maybe the most athletic kid I’ve ever coached, so it’s fun to watch him get those follow-up dunks. They’re crowd-pleasers and they get a lot of energy going for us.
“He’s just a special athlete and we’re just happy to have him out for basketball because he so talented in so many things that he can pick whatever he wants to do.”
ETC. — Spearville’s Carson Konrade, a special entry in the TOC, was the free-throw champion, sinking 23 of 25 foul shots in the finals, topping Dodge City girls basketball team standout Valerie Oritz, who made 18 of 25 in the finals.
Both Konrade and Ortiz sank an impressive 48 of 50 to advance to the finals.
Konrade and his unbeaten Spearville teammates will be taking part in the SPIAA Tournament this week at the Dodge City Civic Center. You can find a SPIAA tourney bracket in today’s Daily Globe. ... Class 1A state-ranked South Gray’s boys and girls teams will also be vying for tourney championships. ... Dodge City’s girls will be playing in the Newton midseason tournament Thursday through Saturday.
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Bubba Starling was a dominating force in leading Class 5A Gardner-Edgerton High School to the Tournament of Champions title game Saturday at the Dodge City Civic Center.
The superlative three-sport athlete garnered the accolades of the TOC individual sportsmanship and most inspirational player awards with his relentless play and rim-rattling slam dunks.
Yet Perry Ellis and his 6A top-ranked and defending state-champion Wichita Heights teammates took home the ultimate hardware, answering every rush the Blazers made.
If there had been a most outstanding player award given, it you would have to go to Ellis, the supremely talented 6-8 post player and the top-rated sophomore in the nation by rivals.com. Ellis poured in 27 points and hauled in 12 rebounds — his average coming into the TOC — as Heights (9-2) hammered out a 75-60 championship game victory.
“I told our players that this is the best preparation for the postseason that there is,” Heights coach Joe Auer said. “There was a great field, and we had to play well three days in a row. I like where we’re at right now at the halfway point of the season.
“We were after one thing,” Auer said, “and that was the giant trophy that we got to take home with us. I thought the tournament lived up to the pre-hype that it was given. We’re going to enjoy this all year. We haven’t won a midseason tournament since 2000.
Terrance Moore, an oversight on the all-tournament team, added 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, and Evan Wessel had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Falcons.
“(Saturday) was very typical of what we did when we play well,” Auer said. “I thought (guard EJ) Dobbins and Moore came out and really set an aggressive tempo for us, attacking the basket and running our half-court offense to perfection early.
“I thought Perry, probably better than any time in his career, ran the floor and he was track athlete in the middle of that floor and we encouraged him to do that. All tournament, we withstood runs. That’s a great team (Gardner-Edgerton) we just played and they never backed off and always kept coming. We never let them erase the great start that we had.”
Auer lauded the play of Starling, also regarded as one of the top junior quarterbacks in the state and a budding baseball prospect. Kansas State University is recruiting him as a quarterback, and it wouldn’t hurt for Frank Martin’s Kansas State basketball program to take a gander, either.
“He’s a tremendous athlete and a unique player,” Auer said of Starling. “He was a tremendous challenge for us. “Langrehr and Starling were tremendous, but they didn’t have any easy looks. Our kids wore them out, I thought.”
Connor Langrehr led Gardner-Edgerton (5-4) with 20 points, although he made only 8 of 19 shots, including 4-for-12 on 3s.
Blazers coach Jeff Langrehr says Starling “is maybe the most athletic kid I’ve ever coached, so it’s fun to watch him get those follow-up dunks. They’re crowd-pleasers and they get a lot of energy going for us.
“He’s just a special athlete and we’re just happy to have him out for basketball because he so talented in so many things that he can pick whatever he wants to do.”
ETC. — Spearville’s Carson Konrade, a special entry in the TOC, was the free-throw champion, sinking 23 of 25 foul shots in the finals, topping Dodge City girls basketball team standout Valerie Oritz, who made 18 of 25 in the finals.
Both Konrade and Ortiz sank an impressive 48 of 50 to advance to the finals.
Konrade and his unbeaten Spearville teammates will be taking part in the SPIAA Tournament this week at the Dodge City Civic Center. You can find a SPIAA tourney bracket in today’s Daily Globe. ... Class 1A state-ranked South Gray’s boys and girls teams will also be vying for tourney championships. ... Dodge City’s girls will be playing in the Newton midseason tournament Thursday through Saturday.
67th Annual Tournament of Champions
At Dodge City
Dodge City Civic Center
Saturday
Championship
Wichita Heights 75,
Gardner-Edgerton 60
GARDNER-EDGERTON (5-4)
Bubba Starling 8-15 0-3 17, Jalen Jones 1-2 0-0 3, Tanner Webb 0-2 0-0 0, Corbin Haas 0-0 0-0 0, Dexter Newsome 3-7 2-4 8, Jayden Juenemann 3-9 0-0 7, Connor Langrehr 9-19 0-0 20, Qunicy Johnson 0-0 2-3 0, Dan Mauszycki 0-3 0-0 0, Brandon Reed 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 24-60 5-12 60.
WICHITA HEIGHTS (9-2)
EJ Dobbins 4-6 1-4 9, Evan Wessel 5-10 2-5 12, Dreamius Smith 2-8 0-0 5, Taylor Countee 0-0 0-0 0, Terrence Moore 8-14 0-1 17, Aaron Degraffenread 1-2 0-0 2, Jay Bradley 1-1 0-0 2, Jalen Owens 0-1 0-0 0, Keith Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Cross 0-0 1-2 1, Jared Powell 0-0 0-0 0, Perry Ellis 10-15 7-11 27, Zerrance Brickhouse 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-58 11-23 75.
Gardner 15 16 12 17 — 60
Heights 24 18 16 17 — 75
Three-point goals — Gardner 7-26 (Langrehr 4-12, Juenemann 1-5, Starling 1-4, Jones 1-2, Webb 0-2, Reed 0-1); Heights 2-7 (Smith 1-3, Moore 1-1, Dobbins 0-1, Wessel 0-1, Degraffenread 0-1). Total fouls — Gardner 21, Heights 12. Fouled out — Haas. Rebounds — Heights 46 (Ellis 12, Wessel 7, Moore 6, Smith 5); Gardner 27 (Starling 9, Langrehr 4, Mauszycki 4). Assists — Heights 17 (Moore 4, Wessel 4, Ellis 2, Dobbins 2); Gardner 15 (Langrehr 4, Juenemann 4). Steals — Heights 6 (Moore 3); Gardner 6 (Langrehr 2). Turnovers — Heights 11, Gardner 9. Blocked shots — Gardner 3 (Starling 3); Heights (None).
