When Conner Frankamp touched the ball Thursday night, he nearly couldn't miss.
The North junior scored 38 points in an upset of Heights, dropping them 47-38. The loss marked the first back-to-back losses for the Falcons since the squad dropped two in a row at the end of the 2008 season in the Class 6A State Tournament.
"It's a great feeling!" Frankamp said following the game. "It's great to get them this year with all their players. I didn't play very well the first half but I tried to stay confident and get my team involved as much as I could."
The strong showing also translated on the defensive side of the ball, as the Redskins shut down Heights on offense and held the Falcons All-American player, Perry Ellis, to just 11 points.
The spotlight was instead reserved for Frankamp who scored 27 of his 38 points in the second half. The effort moved Frankamp into fourth place on the City League's all-time scoring list with 1,676 points. The junior passed South's Ricky Ross who compiled 1,667 points over his career.
"He is a special player and he came out firing tonight," North head coach Gary Squires said of Frankamp. "In the second half he really got it going and put on a show for us."
Playing their fourth game in seven days, it's been a long stretch for Heights (18-2), as they slipped from 18-0 to 18-2 to end the regular season.
"We played terrible basketball tonight and we got exposed," Heights head coach Joe Auer said. "North had a great game plan and we got what we deserve tonight."
"We are spent, we are just completely drained," Auer said of the toll taken on his team. "All teams are tired this time of year but the kids just look emotionally and physically spent."
Perry Ellis, who was held to his lowest point total of the season, struggled to get open looks all night long. The performance also came in front of Kansas head coach Bill Self, who was in attendance.
North (12-7) got off to an slow start, letting Heights jump out to a 9-0 before Gary Squires called a timeout.
Neither team played well offensively after that, instead resorting to defensive basketball as Heights took a 16-15 lead at halftime.
"Worst offensive production in the last four or five years," Auer said.
Conversations on both sides were brief at halftime but Frankamp began to open up more in the second half.
"You preach everyday to work hard and good things will happen to you," Squires said.
"We held them to 16 points in the first half, which we were really proud of but we weren't knocking down shots though," Frankamp said. "We finally stepped up and knocked down open shots."
Heights made a run at taking down North and trailed 42-38 but missed a pair of free throws that would have cut the deficit to two. Frankamp was able to ice the game away at the line and hand the Falcons their second straight loss.
"We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves," Auer said. "It's an unusual situation. I don't know if I've ever heard of a situation where you go 18-0 then 0-2. We will be OK but it's going to take us a good week of practice to be back where we need to be."
