Skylar Douglas Returns From Injury, Lifts Sacred Heart to First State Title

Picture courtesy of Tanner Colvin

EMPORIA — Skylar Douglas didn’t know what hit her, but it was enough for Sacred Heart’s cheering section to collectively gasp and hope for the best.

With exactly 5 minutes, 58 seconds left in Sacred Heart’s Class 2A girls state final against No. 1 seed Ellinwood, a sideline collision sent Douglas to the floor in a heap, changing both Douglas’ complexion and the complexion of the game.

“I knew the ball was coming, and the next thing I know I got nailed in the face,” Douglas, the Knights’ senior guard, said of the hard foul by Ellinwood’s Mette Maxwell in a scramble for the ball. “And then everything kind of went black.”

Senior Skylar Douglas

“Then I looked up and I had my teammates around me, so it was nice to see all their support. But then I got taken over to the side, and then the blood was just pouring. So, it took a little bit to get it to calm down (because) I was bleeding bad, but they patched it up and I was ready to go back in.”

Good thing, too, as Douglas returned to start the fourth quarter, and with Ellinwood making a run knocked down two key 3-pointers to help the Knights hang on for a 43-34 victory and their first-ever girls state basketball championship.

“She’s a tremendous basketball player,” Sacred Heart coach Carl Hines said of Douglas, a career 1,000-point scorer who will continue her career next year at Tabor College.

But more than Douglas’ toughness — she played the fourth quarter with gauze in both nostrils, one still bloody — the victory showed the grit of a Sacred Heart team that leaned almost exclusively on its five starters. When Douglas went out, the Knights actually extended their five-point lead to 12 before an Ellinwood surge cut it to 32-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

Junior guard Addie Lee scored seven of her game-high 15 points immediately after Douglas went down, and senior reserve Holly Bonilla held her own in her first significant action of the tournament.

“I saw her go down and I was like, ‘OK, maybe she’ll get back up.’ Then she moves her hand and she’s bleeding all over,” senior guard Nicole Richards said of Douglas’ spill. “I’m like, ‘OK, well, hopefully this can get cleaned up and we can get her back in the game, because she really is crucial for our team.”

“But honestly, Holly came in and put in some good minutes for our team. She’s a great player all around and she accepts her role, and she did really well.”

Bonilla answered the call without displaying the nerves she felt replacing a key player in a crucial situation.

Senior Holly Bonilla

“I was really scared,” Bonilla said with a smile. “But I knew that in needed to step up and do as much as I could for my team, because they deserve it.”

With Douglas back in the lineup, the Knights still were not out of the woods. An offensive rebound basket by Ellinwood center Julia Schlessiger cut Sacred Heart’s lead to 32-29 with 5:05 left, only to have Douglas answer with a 3-pointer 13 seconds later.

A Maxwell three again trimmed it to three points, but with 3:20 on the clock Douglas drained another 3-pointer, this one from the left corner that pushed it back to six. The Knights held on, allowing just two points the rest of the way.

Douglas did not hesitate in launching the 3-pointers on a day when the Knights were just 5 of 20 from behind the arc.

“It was the championship game, it was the fourth quarter, and I knew it was my last quarter of high school, so I was just going for it,” said Douglas, who finished with 10 points. “You had nothing to lose, so you’ve just got to shoot the ball.”

In addition to Douglas and Addie Lee, Sacred Heart got nine points, nine rebounds and three assists from freshman guard Emmy Lee, three points and 10 rebounds from Richards, plus four points off the bench from Brynn Bechard.

“What I’ll remember is just the fun we had as a team,” said Richards, who will not play college basketball. “A lot of teams are here to just play basketball, but our team is more than that.”

Senior Nicole Richards

“Our team has a friendship that is deeper than basketball, so it just kind of shows on the court that we’re playing not just as teammates, but as friends.”

Hines, who led the Knights to a historic championship in his fifth season, was beaming after the trophy presentation.

“It’s a moment you’ll always remember,” he said. “For lack of a better word, it’s like they’re queens of the mountain. This is every kid’s dream, and every coach’s dream.”