WICHITA – Olathe North’s boys were state runners-up a year ago and won 24 games this season. So it’s not like the Eagles suddenly stumbled into good fortune during the Class 6A state tournament.
 
But the way they captured the first state title in program history was simply breathtaking.
 
After opening the tournament in Kansas City with a 27-point victory over a Derby team that had won 14 of 15 games, Olathe North took its show on the road to Koch Arena. And what a show it was.
 
Less than 24 hours after walloping Sunflower League champion Mill Valley in the semifinals, the Eagles were too much for another of their league brethren, thumping top-seeded Shawnee Mission South 67-50 for the 6A crown.
 

Olathe North capped its 24-4 season by avenging close regular-season losses to each of its final two opponents, defeating both by 17 points. Senior Cameron Love, a UMKC commit for new coach Mark Turgeon, scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the title game against South, which finished 26-2.
 
“We knew at the time we lost those games, we weren’t playing like ourselves,” said Love, referring to a 55-54 loss to South on Feb. 3 and 61-58 loss to Mill Valley on Feb. 24. “We were like too amped up.
 
“We knew we just had to come out here, have fun, calm down, relax and play as a team.”
 
Olathe North checked all the boxes, hitting the jackpot in its fifth consecutive state appearance under coach Adam Olerich. The first three trips ended in quarterfinal losses before the Eagles reached the final last year and fell to another Sunflower League foe, Shawnee Mission Northwest, 63-56 in the championship game.
 
“We’ve tried to click at the right time,” said Olerich, who ended his seventh season with his 105^th victory on Saturday. “The past four years, I thought we played our best basketball to get to the state tournament. But I thought we put it all together this weekend.
 
“And we needed to. The quarterfinal, semifinal and final were against three excellent teams, coaches and programs. We knew we’d have to be at our best. It just worked out that our best was good enough this year.”
 

You’d get no argument from South, which fell into a 19-6 first-quarter hole and never fully recovered. The Raiders, who won their first two tournament games by 44 and 25 points, shot just 32% against Olathe North.
 
“Their athleticism is at another level,” Shawnee Mission South coach Brett McFall said. “They were hitting shots. They were very impressive yesterday and just as impressive tonight.
 
“The sad thing is we were not ourselves. We’ve never scored six points in a first quarter or 21 at half. We were averaging 74 a game. They just kept getting by us and throwing alley-oops. We did uncharacteristic things and they were top-notch.”
 
Love backed up his 29-point quarterfinal effort against Derby with another team-leading point total against South. Junior Josiah Roland added 16 points, hitting 5 of 8 3-point shots.
 
“He told me after that game against Mill Valley, he was like, ‘Bro, I keep missing,’” Love said. “I told him to keep shooting because it’s going to fall when it matters, and it happened when it mattered.”
 
Senior point guard Sam Simmons, a Richmond signee, added 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for North. Junior Teke Deng, a 6-foot-11 center who scored 25 points in the semifinal win over Mill Valley, added 12 against the Raiders.
 
“I’ve been praying for this moment my whole high school career,” Simmons said. “I’m just glad God took me here and we got the job done. That’s what we wanted to accomplish this year, and we did it.”
 

The Eagles basically faced one early uprising by South in the second half and quickly subdued it. Senior Ben Allen, who led the Raiders with 12 points, scored the first five of the third quarter to cut South’s deficit to 30-25. But Love scored the next five points, and Roland hit three 3-pointers in the quarter to push North’s lead back to 47-31.
 
“We knew from the beginning of the year, we were going to be real special,” Love said. “We had talent, we had height, we had speed. We had a very good bond and loved each other.
 
“We knew after coming here and losing the championship last year, we had to get back and win it.”
 
The Eagles got to take their bows in the fourth quarter. Olathe North opened its biggest lead at 58-37 on back-to-back lobs from Simmons to Deng and Love. Things continued to go so right for the Eagles that toward the end of a frenzied possession in which South was trapping, Simmons broke free for a layup as the shot clock expired to make it 62-43.
 

North, which graduated seven seniors off last year’s runner-up team, including career scoring leader Jaalan Watson, sent six seniors off as champions on Saturday.
 
“Any team is going to be built from seniors on down,” Olerich said. “We’ve always had good seniors and they’ve always left the jersey in a good place. The next group takes it and tries to see if they can take it a little further.
 
“With this group, you see the talent, you see the ability and then you see the passion for playing good, hard-nosed, tough, aggressive basketball. And they played for each other.”
 
 
CLASS 6A BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
 
OLATHE NORTH 67, SHAWNEE MISSION SOUTH 50
 
Olathe North … 19 … 11 … 17 … 20 … – … 67
Shawnee Mission South … 6 … 15 … 12 … 17 … – … 50
 
Olathe North (24-4) – Simmons 4-7 4-7 13, Galindo 1-7 0-0 3, Love 8-11 4-6 20, Deng 6-8 0-0 12, Cooper 0-0 1-2 1, Ju. Roland 0-1 2-2 2, Jo. Roland 5-9 1-2 16, Scroggins 0-0 0-0 0, Ngugi 0-0 0-0 0, Martin 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Bakhautdinov 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-43 12-19 67.
 
Shawnee Mission South (26-2) – Davis 2-6 1-1 6, Burns 3-7 1-1 7, DeBaun 4-17 1-1 9, Allen 5-13 0-0 12, Kerrigan 2-6 5-8 11, McKenna 0-2 0-0 0, Garcia 0-1 3-4 3, Minnick 0-0 0-0 0, Black 0-0 0-0 0, Flint 1-1 0-0 2, Thomson 0-0 0-0 0, Jansen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-53 11-15 50.
 
3-point goals – Olathe North 7-20 (Jo. Roland 5-8, Simmons 1-2, Galindo 1-7, Love 0-1, Deng 0-1, Ju. Roland 0-1); Shawnee Mission South 5-23 (Kerrrigan 2-3, Allen 2-7, Davis 1-2, McKenna 0-1, Burns 0-3, DeBaun 0-7). Rebounds – Olathe North 31 (Deng 11); Shawnee Mission South 29 (Kerrigan 10). Assists – Olathe North 17 (Simmons 9); Shawnee Mission South 8 (DeBaun 4). Turnovers – Olathe North 7, Shawnee Mission South 7. Total fouls – Olathe North 17, Shawnee Mission South 16. Fouled out – Olathe North: Galindo.