GSL basketball: Gonzaga Prep girls use torrid 3-point shooting to handle Ridgeline; G-Prep boys outlast Falcons in close contest

There aren’t many nights where a team is going to shoot better than 50% on 3-point attempts, so you enjoy it when you can. Especially when it’s against a league rival that has postseason aspirations.

The Gonzaga Prep girls shot a blistering 10 of 12 from distance in the first half, running up an insurmountable lead en route to a 74-43 victory over visiting Ridgeline in a Greater Spokane League 4A/3A game on Tuesday.

Senior Laura Thompson led Gonzaga Prep with 22 points with three 3-pointers. Junior Quinn Pederson had 19 with five 3s and junior Aylah Cornwall added 15.

Ridgeline was led by junior Grace Sheridan with 19 points and senior Madi Crowley added 16.

“We usually can’t do that in the layup line, so I don’t know if we can count on that every game but we’ll certainly take it tonight,” Gonzaga Prep coach Geoff Arte said of the torrid shooting in the first half. “As good as the offense was – and making shots always makes you look better – our defense against a really good team tonight was really tough.”

“Our hard work ethic has been carrying us so far,” Thompson said. “It’s definitely nice to have a game that things were just going right for us.”

G-Prep dressed only eight and was missing starter Charlee Peterson with the flu.

“She’s our best defender, and when we got to school and knew she would have the flu, we were kind of sulking a little bit. And I said, ‘Who cares?’ ” Arte said. “We kind of simplified the game plan as much as we could, and they just went out and executed like crazy.”

The Bullpups (12-0, 2-0) raced out to a 9-0 lead over the first two minutes. They got a pair of 3-pointers by Pederson in the middle of the first quarter and led 23-12 after one.

Pederson hit another 3 three minutes into the second to complete a 13-2 run and push the lead to 20. G-Prep led 44-20 at intermission.

Pederson finished with four 3-pointers in the first half, while Thompson and Belle Hernandez (12 points) added three apiece.

“It seems like it was pretty balanced all night,” Arte said. “A lot of kids hitting shots, and some kids who had been struggling hit some big shots for us tonight.”

“It’s something that we practice every day in practice,” Thompson said. “It’s just a really big thing to make sure we’re passing the ball, making sure that we have multiple people on the court that can keep us in the game and that can score.”

G-Prep’s shooting from 3 dried up in the third quarter as the Bullpups missed all four attempts from distance, but it didn’t hurt their bottom line, outscoring Ridgeline 15-9 in the period to lead by 30 entering the fourth quarter.

The Falcons (9-4, 1-1), who carry seven freshmen on varsity, opened the fourth with a 12-3 spurt fueled by Sheridan and Crowley to get the deficit under 20 points. But Cornwall converted a three-point play with three minutes left to stem the tide.

Arte wants to make sure his squad doesn’t get complacent from the big win.

“You’ve got to replicate it in February,” he said. “We’ll celebrate for one night, and then we’ve got to get back to practice tomorrow.”

Boys

Gonzaga Prep 60, Ridgeline 48: Jack Pierce scored 16 points, Dylynn Groves added 14 and the Bullpups (9-5, 2-0) outlasted the Falcons (4-9, 0-2) in the early game.

Ridgeline got within two points on a pair of free throws with 3 minutes, 40 seconds left, but did not score again. G-Prep scored the final 10 points of the game, all at the line.

The Bullpups limited the Falcons to a total of five points in the fourth quarter.

“We weren’t communicating as well as we would have liked throughout the game, and (Ridgeline) really made a lot of 3-point shots because we weren’t getting enough ball pressure in the first half,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “We talked about it before the game, but weren’t able to execute it.”

Joey Duff led Ridgeline with 15 points and four 3-pointers. Caden Andreas added 12 with three 3s.