Heights boys top East in battle of defending state champions

In the City League, it turns out, there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself.

Not when you’re coming off a home loss, like both Heights and East were on Friday night. Not when you’re coming off the worst game of the last two seasons, like Heights forward Davon Gill was.

Not even when you’re down 24-1, like East was midway through the second quarter.

“This league is just too dang tough to worry about what just happened,” Heights coach Joe Auer said. “You have to keep moving forward, or you’re cooked.”

Heights moved forward in a big way, holding off a furious East rally for a 57-45 win in a battle of defending state champions at Heights.

Gill led the way with 15 points and 13 rebounds, followed closely by fellow senior forward Aaron Williams’ 16 points and 10 rebounds.

“My focus was just to win,” said Gill, who scored four points and grabbed one rebound in a 69-51 loss to Southeast on Tuesday. “That was my only goal. We had to bounce back from that loss.”

Heights (6-1), the defending Class 5A champion, showed there were no lingering effects from Tuesday’s loss by racing to a 24-1 lead in the first half as East missed its first 13 shots and Heights allowed zero second-chance opportunities in that span.

“That was our entire focus, to limit them to one shot and grab the ball with two hands,” Auer said. “I think we defended our tails off. I know our kids were really disappointed with our effort on Tuesday, and they used that as an opportunity to get better. I was really pleased with how we started the game.”

On the opposite sideline, the start was a nightmare for East (5-2). The defending 6A champions were playing without leading scorer and rebounder Xavier Kelly for the second straight game as he’s in San Antonio to participate in Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

“(Heights) had us out of our element,” East coach Joe Jackson said. “We weren’t aggressive against their length. We telegraphed a lot of passes early on ... we just told the guys at halftime to settle down and the lid would come off the bucket eventually.

“I thought the second half was the best half of basketball we’ve played this season.”

The Aces got an unexpected boost from two sources — a technical on Jackson sparked a 12-4 run to end the first half and cut Heights’ lead to 28-13, and 6-foot-4 forward James Caldwell came off the bench to score 16 points and grab six rebounds, including a two-handed slam off an alley-oop pass by Michael McKinney to open the second half.

And while East was able to cut Heights’ lead to single digits at the end of the third quarter and several times in the fourth quarter, the Falcons always had an answer.

“It was intense,” Williams said. “The crowd was hectic and the environment was crazy, but we just played and did the things we’re used to doing. (Auer) said to keep playing like we know how to, get two-handed with the ball and just finish.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 11:08 PM with the headline "Heights boys top East in battle of defending state champions."