‘This is your time’: Eck’s words guide Kapaun basketball to another Kansas state title
A state championship was two feet away from Corbin Johnson, a shot that the Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior has made thousands of times in his basketball career.
But his bank shot right in front of the rim missed as time expired and the Class 5A state championship game between the Crusaders and Highland Park went to overtime.
What happened next could not be drawn up on a clipboard, not even by the legendary coach Steve Eck himself. It could only occur on a team that is totally and entirely bought in — and that doesn’t happen in one game, one week or even one month.
“Growing up every coach I’ve had has always told me to focus on the next shot if you miss,” Johnson said. “It really helped with my teammates all giving me confidence and telling me to forget about it and telling me, ‘Next shot.’ I think that’s what did it. After hearing that, I knew I had to be there for my guys.”
Before the Crusaders could deliver in a championship’s biggest moments, the team had go through wars together, survive tough practices together and bond together — both on and off the court — to develop the trust and belief that carried them through their most adverse moments.
In the end, Kapaun was prepared for when the moment came on Saturday and prevailed with a 58-55 overtime victory over Highland Park to win its second straight 5A title at White Auditorium in Emporia.
“These boys just weren’t going to quit,” said Eck, who knows a thing or two about championship chemistry. “We’ve been together all year. They weren’t going to quit on each other now. They just had a mind frame that we weren’t going to give in, we just had to keep going.”
All coaches talk about the importance of teamwork and trust. None carry the cache of Eck, who won his eighth state championship, tied for second-most in the history of Kansas high school basketball, to go along with a Hall-of-Fame career as a junior college basketball coach.
Since returning to the City League after a 25-year absence in 2021, Eck has now won more than 92% of his games (315-25 record) at the high school level. He has 1,064 total wins in his coaching career.
“We seriously go into every single game thinking we’re going to win because he’s a legend,” Johnson said. “He knows what he’s talking about. When we listen to him, we win. That’s how it goes.”
And what Eck told his players when facing a 9-point deficit on Saturday was to trust themselves and to trust their teammates. That’s how the Crusaders ended up rattling off 17 straight victories after a rocky 5-3 start to this season.
Kapaun flipped the game in the third quarter, ending the period on a 12-2 run, capped by a Johnson 3-point play, to take a 38-35 lead. The Crusaders led by as many as eight in the fourth quarter, but the theatrics began with an 8-0 run by Highland Park to tie the score in the final minute.
Following a timeout, Kapaun executed an out-of-bounds play on the baseline nearly flawlessly, as Johnson juked a defender with a fake cut to the 3-point line and back cut to the rim and senior Corey Daniels lofted the perfect alley-oop pass, but Johnson’s bank attempt fell off the rim as time expired.
“We trust all of our teammates and we know that we have each other’s backs,” said Daniels, who had 11 points. “We know if we’re up or down, we’re always going to be playing together and playing hard and bringing the energy to each other.”
In a rematch of last year’s semifinal game that also required overtime, Saturday’s version somehow exceeded last year’s thriller.
The result appeared decided in the final 10 seconds of overtime with Kapaun leading 56-52, but that was thrown into doubt when Highland Park star Jacorey Robinson, an Austin Peay commit who scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, hit a 3-pointer while being fouled with 5.3 seconds left.
“That was crazy emotional,” Johnson admitted. “He’s a great player. All credit to him. That was an insane shot. But we’re such a tight-knit group, we were already focused on the next play.”
With a chance for a dramatic 4-point play to tie the score, Robinson’s free throw was long and Johnson rebounded the miss. But even after two straight makes at the other end, Highland Park had one last good look at a tie, but Robinson’s 3-point runner swirled in and out to end the Scots’ quest for their first championship since 2009.
Johnson and Rocco Keller each scored 16 points for Kapaun, while Blaise Dalian added 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Other members of the title-winning squad included Owen Herlocker, Jude Porter, Jordan Maingu and Cole Rapp.
“I’m just so happy for the guys and happy for the Kapaun students,” Eck said. “They worked hard every single day since we won state last year. No one probably thought we were going to come back and do it again. Things were looking kind of bleak there for a while, but this was all about the kids. I told them before the game, ‘This isn’t about me, it’s about you guys. This is your time.’”
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 58, Highland Park 55
Kapaun 10 8 20 10 10 — 58
Highland Park 15 12 8 13 7 — 55
KAPAUN (22-3): Keller 7-11 1-1 16, Daniels 3-3 5-6 11, Herlocker 0-1 0-0 0, Dalian 4-8 2-2 11, Johnson 5-14 5-7 16, Maingu 1-1 0-0 2, Porter 1-7 0-0 2, Rapp 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-45 13-16 58.
HIGHLAND PARK (24-1): Wilson 2-7 0-0 5, Hales 2-9 0-0 6, Kelley 1-1 2-2 4, Williams Jr. 4-14 2-4 11, Robinson 10-22 3-8 26, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-2 1-4 1, Kingcannon 1-5 0-0 2, Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-60 8-18 55.
Three-point shooting—Kapaun 3-17 (Keller 1-2, Dalian 1-4, Johnson 1-5, Herlocker 0-1, Porter 0-5); Highland Park 7-24 (Robinson 3-7, Hales 2-9, Wilson 1-1, Williams Jr. 1-4, Kingcannon 0-3). Rebounds—Kapaun 37 (Dalian, Johnson 10); Highland Park 32 (Robinson 12. Assists—Kapaun 5 (Dalian 3); Highland Park 5 (Robinson 4). Turnovers—Kapaun 14, Highland Park 4.
This story was originally published March 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM.
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