Gonzaga Prep boys, girls sweep Mead to clinch Greater Spokane League regular season titles | GSL basketball

The Gonzaga Prep boys basketball team has won its share of Greater Spokane League 4A/3A championships, and Tuesday’s 66-60 win over Mead “added to the legacy,” according to Bullpups coach Matty McIntyre.

They have even bigger goals – like defending their State 4A title – but McIntyre wants to make sure his veteran Bullpups team “savors the moment,” even if the GSL regular-season title is a stepping stone.

Dylynn Groves scored 21 points and Jack Pierce added 17 for G-Prep (15-5, 8-0). Mead (10-8, 3-5) was led by Trevelle Jones with 21 points and Karson Maze with 20.

“It’s always an amazing accomplishment,” G-Prep senior Ryan Carney said. “I mean, this is a tough league, a ton of good teams. It’s always great to make your mark and win the GSL.”

Anytime these two teams meet late in the season it’s going to be a physical affair, and it was no different on Tuesday.

“It was a very exciting game. Hard fought with two really good teams going at it,” McIntyre said. “There was a lot of ball pressure and a lot of really good defense out there tonight. It disrupted things on the offensive end, but I was proud of the way we responded to a little bit of adversity, and we’ll get better from it.”

Jones started the game with a four-point play and had nine in the quarter and Mead led 16-11 after one. G-Prep scored the first five points of the second to tie it. Maze popped a 3 with 90 seconds left in the half, but Pierce answered at the other end and G-Prep led 33-31 at the half.

The Bullpups started the third with an 8-2 run, with five from Groves, and Mead coach Luke Jordan asked for time.

“They were switching screens, so we thought we might have an advantage if we get the ball in (to Groves),” McIntyre said.

Jones hit a 3 coming out of the break, but Mead couldn’t cut much more into the deficit and the Panthers trailed 51-46 entering the fourth.

The Panthers only managed a pair of free throws through the first 4 1/2 minutes of the final quarter, but the Bullpups accounted for just five points and led 56-48 with 3:28 left.

Thornton banked a 3 with 1:25 left to make it a seven-point game, then Jones converted a three-point play to make it 58-54 with a minute left.

Maze made three at the line to draw Mead within three with 29 second remaining, but Colt Few made 1 of 2 to keep it a four-point game and the Bullpups made enough at the line to hold on.

“This is something that nobody can take away from them,” McIntyre said. “They can talk about it as old men and they contributed to the basketball program’s legacy. And you can’t take that for granted.”

Girls

Gonzaga Prep 46, Mead 37: Aylah Cornwall scored 26 points with seven rebounds and the Bullpups (18-0, 8-0) beat the Panthers (14-4, 6-2) to clinch the GSL 4A/3A regular-season title in the early game.

But it wasn’t easy, despite Mead missing its two leading scorers – senior Addison Wells-Morrison (13.5 ppg) and junior Ellie Thornton (10.9 ppg) – to injury.

“I feel bad for Mead because they had so many kids injured,” Gonzaga Prep coach Geoff Arte said. “But we had to sell that to our kids, that that was what we were going to get tonight. Those kids, especially those seniors, they’re not going to give you anything easy.”

Cornwall finished with three 3-pointers and went 11 for 12 at the line.

“It feels great. This is what we were working for all season,” she said. “Free throws win games. They win championships.”

Cornwall had eight points in the first quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, and G-Prep recovered from a slow start and led 13-11 after one. Mead’s Reese Frederick (10 points) hit a 3 with about one minute left in the second quarter and G-Prep led 24-20 at intermission.

Scoring slowed considerably in the third, with the teams combining for three buckets in the first four minutes. Josie Rueckert’s 3 from the corner gave Mead a one-point lead with 3:20 left, but Cornwall’s long banked 3 late in the period helped the Bullpups enter the fourth with a 33-29 advantage.

Cornwall scored seven of Gonzaga Prep’s nine points in the third.

Cornwall hit a runner in the lane midway through the fourth, and Quinn Pederson nailed a 3 after an offensive rebound by Belle Hernandez and the Bullpups went up by nine with two minutes left.

“Aylah is so good, and so good at making everyone else around her better,” Arte said.