Dodge City tournament: Heights coach Joe Auer breaks City League wins record

The game swept Heights coach Joe Auer up.

As he’d done so many times in 21 seasons, he let himself get lost in the flow of it. Another back-and-forth battle. Another fight to the finish.

And when the buzzer finally sounded, with Auer victorious for the 319th time in his career after Heights held off Maize 51-49 in the semifinals of the Dodge City Tournament of Champions, the emotions flooded in.

The win lifted Auer past Carl Taylor as the City League’s career wins leader. But in this moment, it was about so much more than that.

“Pretty emotional, to be honest,” Auer said. “Not so much that I have the record, but because it’s been a grind, a lot of hard work to even be in this position and I’ve heard from a lot of old players so it’s been a pretty emotional week … guys from the entire time I’ve been at Heights, from 1996 on.

“It represents a lot. And if you’re going to set a record, that was the kind of game you want to do it in. A grinding, gut-wrenching game. I’m glad we came out on top.”

That it was, not ending until referees waved off a shot by Maize’s Troy Baker that went in a split-second after the buzzer.

Heights (10-1) will face East at 6 p.m. Saturday in the championship game.

“It’s great to be a part of this, because (Auer) is a great man, a great person,” Heights senior forward Aaron Williams said. “I’m proud to be a part of the team that did it. You could see he was pretty emotional right after the game.”

Maize (8-2) came within a hair’s breadth of beating Heights for the second time in a week after losing to the Falcons in overtime at the City League vs. AV-CTL basketball challenge last Saturday.

“It’s hard to beat the same team twice in pretty much the same week,” said Heights forward Davon Gill, who led his team with 15 points. “They’re long like us, and they can hit the three. They don’t let you stick in one spot, you have to guard all five players.”

Gill, 6-foot-7, was at his best in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points and coming out on top in his battle with 6-8 Maize forward Troy Baker, who finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and six blocks. Grant Bugbee led Maize with 21 points, including five three-pointers.

But it was Auer and his record that ruled the day — his players surrounding him as the game ended and he choked up in the hallway after the game talking about what it took to get there.

“Everything kind of came to the surface when the game ended,” said Auer, who has won five state championships. “But now, mostly, we’re excited to play East High tomorrow night. That will be one heck of a game.”

East 57, Manhattan 53 (OT) — East continued its drama-filled run at the Tournament of Champions, rallying to beat Manhattan in overtime in the semifinals thanks to another big three-pointer from Elijah Kelly and a career game from senior forward Mark Hartley.

“Hopefully destiny is on our side,” East coach Joe Jackson said. “If that’s the case, we’re not going to turn that away by any means but we know we have a tough ballgame ahead of us.”

Kelly, who hit the game-winning three-pointer in Thursday night’s win over Hays, tied the game with a three with 9.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime. Hartley opened the overtime period with a three-pointer, his fourth of the game, and East never trailed again.

“Elijah has been cluch these last two games,” said Hartley, who finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. “My teammates were just finding me and my shot was falling tonight.”

Xavier Kelly added 14 points and nine rebounds for East (8-3).

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 11:42 PM with the headline "Dodge City tournament: Heights coach Joe Auer breaks City League wins record."