After extended injury, Dylynn Groves impacting Gonzaga Prep offense; Bullpups boys down Central Valley 65-52 | GSL basketball

Gonzaga Prep senior Dylynn Groves, younger brother of Tanner and Jacob Groves who both starred at Shadle Park and Eastern Washington before transferring, missed a year and a half of his high school basketball career with an injury.

He made his season debut just before the holidays and through his first 10 games was on a minutes restriction as he readjusted to the rigors of the game.

He’s starting to “feel it” now, and that’s bad news for the everyone else for the stretch run in the Greater Spokane League 4A/3A division.

Groves finished with 24 points, 14 in the third period as the Bullpups built a double-digit lead, and Gonzaga Prep held off visiting Central Valley 65-52 on Friday.

“It’s tough to not play the game you love for more than a year,” Groves said. “It really made me think through some things, decide if I really love the game. But I mean, I absolutely do. It’s just so good to be back with my teammates. I was missing playing with those guys for a long time. So, it’s great to be back.”

Groves went for 32 points in his second game back in December – in just nine minutes – but he has averaged 8.2 points per game overall entering Friday. But he’s starting to feel fully integrated into the offense.

“My team put me in a great spot,” he said. “(The coaches) have prepared great game plans for us every week. They do all the work, and we’re just there to execute their plan.”

“We’ve been a really tough team to scout in January because we don’t even know what we’re doing most of the time,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “It’s just finally starting to come together. Roles are getting defined, and we’re getting all on the same page. It’s great to have (Groves) back out there. He adds another element to our offense, and I look forward to seeing us improve the rest of the way.”

It was the second consecutive strong defensive effort for the Bullpups after limiting Mt. Spokane to 29 points on Tuesday. G-Prep held two of CV’s top three leading scorers to well-below their season average.

“(The coaches) have kind of instilled that in us since day one,” Groves said. “It’s not about the points, it’s about the defense. It’s about being together as a team, the camaraderie. That’s what it is to us.”

“We really hang our hat on the defensive end of the floor,” McIntyre said. “We don’t have many leading scorers in the league, but we’ve got some really tough ornery kids on the defensive end. That’s the kind of team I love.”

Carter Nilson (15 points) scored eight points – including a 3-pointer – in the first quarter as G-Prep (12-5, 5-0) built a 14-10 lead through one. The teams combined for 19 points in the second quarter and the Bullpups led 24-19 at the break.

Isaac Plunkitt banked a 3 to open the third quarter to get CV (11-5, 4-2) within two. Groves answered with a 3 and a pair of layups and G-Prep restored a nine-point lead at the media break.

Nilson hit a corner 3 late in the period, Groves added another 3 and a pair of buckets in the paint and G-Prep led 45-35 entering the fourth.

The Bullpups shut CV out through the first 2 minutes, 26 seconds of the fourth. The Bears made a concerted effort to get to the line in the latter stages, going 13 of 15 from the stripe, but Carney’s steal and layup with a minute left extended the lead to 15.

“I just love defense,” McIntyre said. “We talk often about trying to value other things besides scoring, that you can impact the game in a lot of ways. So don’t drop your head if you’re not making shots or whatever. There’s a lot of ways to win a basketball game.”

Cameron Walls led CV with 20 points and Orland Axton added 13.

Girls

Gonzaga Prep 68, Central Valley 43: Junior guard Aylah Cornwall scored 24 points and the Bullpups (15-0, 5-0) pulled away from the Bears (9-7, 3-3) in the early game.

G-Prep led 19-15 after the first quarter then went on a 12-2 run to start the second, with four players scoring during the run. The Bullpups outscored CV 23-3 in the quarter and led 42-18 at intermission.

Cornwall had 15 at the half.

“On our team, we believe defense wins us games,” Cornwall said of the second quarter run. “We locked in on defense, got some quick turnovers at the top of the key, got a few layups on the other end. So that started our run, and we just kept at it on the offensive end.”

Laura Thompson scored 18 points and Belle Hernandez added 10 for G-Prep, which is rated No.4 in 4A by the state’s RPI system.

Drae Domebo led CV with 18 points and Olivia Patshkowski added 13.