In the two most spectrum-spanning moments of Sebastian Hines-Turner’s high school basketball career, one thing connected them.
 
Success.
 
Moment No. 1 came on Dec. 17, 2024, in Wichita Collegiate’s league opener at home against Wellington. Looking to create in the waning seconds of a tie game, Hines-Turner spotted wide-open teammate Jack Grace underneath the basket and lobbed it to him for the winning score as time expired in a 76-74 victory.
 
Only Hines-Turner never saw it. As he released the pass, the 6-foot-5 forward crumpled to the court, his left leg suspended in the air. With a celebration igniting around him, Hines-Turner lay at the free-throw line, holding his leg in agony. His Achilles tendon was ruptured.
 
Moment No. 2 played out March 14 in the Hutchinson Sports Arena, and featured a different type of adversity. Saddled with three fouls in the first half of the Class 3A boys championship game against Burlington, Hines-Turner used the remaining time to author his own chapter of Collegiate’s rich basketball history.
 

Flashing his versatile skillset, Hines-Turner scored 17 of the Spartans’ 19 third-quarter points and 25 of his career-high 33 points in the second half as Collegiate rallied for a 55-42 victory.
 
“I just think that was part of my story,” said Hines-Turner, a KSHSAA Covered All-State Top 5 selection. “Going down in the fashion I did, we still came out successful in that game. And then going out the way I did my senior year – at a state championship with all our community behind us – there’s irony in that.”
 
And a massive amount of hard work.
 
Two days after his junior season ended with the Achilles injury, Hines-Turner underwent surgery, beginning an arduous process that not only healed his wound, but helped him develop into a more complete basketball player. Hines-Turner’s rehab work, supervised by Collegiate athletic trainer Cam Clark, was a journey that the multi-sport standout athlete marked with target dates for progress, with the ultimate goal of returning in time to play wide receiver in Collegate’s football opener last September.
 
“Having to battle back from an injury and try to be back in eight months for football was one of the things that I was scared of,” Hines-Turner said. “You’re not really sure if you’re even ready to run again and you don’t know if you’re going to be 100% again.
 
“I had my mom, (former football) Coach (Troy) Black, my trainers on my side. But when it first happened, I was obviously down. Junior year is a big recruitment time and I was coming off a pretty solid sophomore season. Once that hit, it just derailed that and you feel a lot of hard work going down the drain. That put me in a dark place.”
 
Collegiate was also in the midst of a basketball coaching change. Longtime head coach Mitch Fiegel, who guided the Spartans to six state titles in 36 years, announced his retirement and was replaced by former Lakin coach Nate Schmitt.
 
Schmitt had watched Hines-Turner play in the 3A state tournament as a freshman. As his new coach, their first encounter was at a team summer camp last June.
 
“He was still pretty limited in the weight room,” Schmitt said. “I think I got four days of came with him. He was probably about half-speed. As he went on, I think everybody was just blown away that he played football. We joked in basketball that we still weren’t sure he was at 100%, but you knew the ability was there. You just had to get him healthy.”
 
Hines-Turner met his football deadline, catching a touchdown pass in the opener against Wellington. He went on to earn All-Class 3A and All-Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail IV first-team honors. In basketball, with Hines-Turner re-joining top returning scorer AJ Batiste and guard Kamari Jennings, the Spartans ascended to the top of the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association’s 3A rankings in January.
 

With Hines-Turner averaging 19.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists, Collegiate won its first 18 games before falling to eventual Class 5A runner-up Kapaun Mt. Carmel. The Spartans regrouped to win their final nine games by an average of 32.3 points, scoring 106 points in postseason victories over Kingman and Wellsville.
 
“I guess the thing that stands out about him to me is everybody gets to see Sebastian as the basketball player and the athlete,” Schmitt said. “I’ve got the opportunity to be around him enough to see him as the guy who’s so charismatic and puts a smile on your face. He jokes around and lightens the mood.
 
“On the basketball side, in the state tournament, the Kapaun game and some other big games, on those biggest stages when we needed him the most, he’s been at his best.”
 
In the championship game, Collegiate, which averaged 78 points per game this season, trailed Burlington 18-17 at halftime. Hines-Turner had eight points, but his foul issues had kept him out of the flow of the game.
 
He missed his first shot of the second half. But an offensive flurry soon ensued.
 
“It was different for me in the sense that I’d been there before,” Hines-Turner said. “I was just able to stay poised. My game had matured by that point, but with that my mind had matured in the way I think about the game. Having the confidence in my game and the things that I had worked on helped me persevere through those three fouls and our team starting off slow.
 
“They gave us their best shot that first half. Us just being down one, I just knew we were going to run away with that game. That triggered me to have the best second half of my life. At the end of the day, that was my last time playing high school basketball. Why not go out with a bang?”
 
While Hines-Turner’s career was full of other substantial moments, the championship performance felt like a connection of the dots to that pre-holiday game against Wellington in 2024 in which he was injured. Instead of a pain-filled ending, Hines-Turner walked off the court in celebration with 11 seconds remaining to savor the Spartans’ first state title in 10 years.
 
“You always love to see deserving players have that type of success,” Schmitt said. “To see him do that on the biggest stage was really cool. As a staff, we tried to get him to be even more aggressive than he already was.
 
“Every time out we felt like he was the best player on the floor at all times. To see him do that, especially in the third quarter, we knew he had the ability to do that. We believed in him and trusted him and he did it.”
 
In the process, Hines-Turner punctuated his story the way he envisioned.
 
“There was definitely unfounded joy that came with winning that title just because I could see how the last 15 months went,” Hines-Turner said. “Seeing all the hard work that I put in and all the hard work that people put in to help me get back to where I could play created joy that I’ve never experienced. The emotions just came out.
 
“Celebrating with my mom – she always gave me encouragement day in and day out, and whenever I felt down – it was one of those things I want to relive multiple times.”