Kreutzer catches fire as Carroll basketball stuns Heights to keep surging
Another ranked opponent was knocked off by the Bishop Carroll boys basketball team on Tuesday, as the Golden Eagles continued to prove their late-season surge is real.
Behind a blistering shooting performance from 6-foot-5 sniper Brody Kreutzer, Carroll went on the road and walked out with a 58-50 win over Wichita Heights, knocking off a Class 6A championship contender and adding another highlight to a season that is trending in the right direction as March approaches.
Carroll (12-7, 9-4 City League) entered the week ranked No. 8 in the Class 5A rankings, while handing Heights (15-4, 10-3 City League) its second straight loss as the No. 5 team in Class 6A.
“I think the kids just finally decided that they can play a little bit and their confidence has just grown,” Carroll coach Dale Faber said. “They really get down and guard. They really do. They’re not going to pressure you 94 feet or anything like that, but they do a pretty good job of taking teams out of their stuff. They’re a really fun group to coach.”
After an up-and-down 4-5 start, Carroll has now won eight of its last 10 games, including four victories over ranked opponents in St. James, Blue Valley, Wichita East and now Wichita Heights. The two blemishes in that stretch? An overtime loss to ranked Derby, when Carroll rallied from a double-digit deficit, and a loss to Kapaun, the two-time defending 5A state champions.
The surge has come under the guidance of a City League legend in Faber, who is back at Carroll, where he coached from 198-99, after retiring from an 18-year head coaching run at Friends in 2021. He’s greatly enjoyed watching a group that is starting to figure it out and looks increasingly comfortable in close games.
“The guys are doing super,” Faber said. “Their effort, their attitude, just everything. They play hard and that’s who we are.”
Tuesday’s defining moment came in the second quarter when Carroll was clinging to a four-point lead and the game still felt like it could tilt either direction. Then Kreutzer caught fire, the kind of heat-check stretch that even drew gasps from the opposing crowd.
Carroll ripped off an 11-0 run to turn a tight game into a 33-18 lead just before halftime, as Kreutzer was the spark that lit the fuse. In a two-minute span, the senior sharpshooter drilled three straight 3s to pull off a 9-0 run by himself.
One came off a screen with Kreutzer spotting up 5 feet beyond the arc. Even as a defender sprinted full speed and leapt to contest, the shot splashed through the net. Another came from the corner, where Kreutzer was mid-dribble and seemingly not even interested in looking at the basket — until he suddenly rose up from well beyond the arc and swished it, leaving a stunned defender flat-footed as he watched the shot sail through the air.
Carroll carried that confidence into the third quarter. Coming out of halftime, Kreutzer nailed another deep 3 in transition to reenergize the Golden Eagles. Moments later, Landon Steven found Nathan Goertz for a layup, pushing the lead to 38-23 and forcing Heights to call timeout to regroup.
“Whenever two good teams go against each other, it’s usually going to come down to whoever wins the battle of the most easy shots,” Faber said. “Who’s scoring in the lane, who’s getting to the free throw line, who’s getting easy run-outs. I thought we made Heights have to work for everything they got.”
But the Falcons didn’t crumble. With their pressure defense turning up and their crowd trying to pull them back into it, Heights star Jalihn Timmons spearheaded a 10-0 run to open the fourth quarter, capped by a deep 3 of his own to trim Carroll’s lead to 46-42 with 4:43 left.
For a moment, the Falcons owned the momentum.
But then Carroll finally steadied itself when Grant Steven connected on a 3 after an offensive rebound. Then, with Heights still within striking distance, the Golden Eagles found another big basket when Jonah Mull hit Judd Blasi on a back cut. The senior finished through contact for a three-point play that made it 52-44 with 2:33 remaining.
The Falcons had one last surge, as Tyson Phillips scored inside to cut it to 54-50 with 57 seconds left. But Carroll closed like a team that is used to winning: Grant Steven sank two free throws to extend the lead, then after Heights missed a 3, Carroll secured the rebound and Kreutzer sealed it at the foul line with two more shots.
Kreutzer finished with six 3s and a game-high 28 points, while Goertz added 11 for Carroll and Timmons led the way for Heights with 19.
For Faber, the most encouraging part isn’t just the shot-making of Kreutzer, who has proven himself to be an elite shooter in Wichita. It’s how Carroll is learning to win grind-it-out games against good teams like Heights.
“Our biggest thing is to just not get discouraged when the ball doesn’t go in the basket,” Faber said. “As long as we keep guarding and rebounding, we’re a pretty confident group. … I think we have that maturity that’s going to show up in the postseason. I’m excited for them.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 6:03 AM.
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