Mead girls win second consecutive Greater Spokane League title; Gonzaga Prep boys hold off Panthers

The Mead girls, ranked No. 8 in the state in 3A, had already sewed up the top seed to the District 8 3A tournament coming into Tuesday’s game.

Gonzaga Prep’s status, however, was still in flux.

The Bullpups entered play tied with Central Valley at 6-2 in league for the top seed to the 4A districts, which start Friday. The Bears, who held the tiebreaker with G-Prep, were across town facing off against third-place Lewis and Clark.

It was Mead that came out fast, looking like it had something to play for. Gonzaga Prep answered with a ferocious comeback in the fourth quarter and tied it late.

But the Panthers picked up a late spark and held on.

Teryn Gardner hit a scoop with 90 seconds to play to make it a six-point game and visiting Mead (15-3, 9-0) outlasted the Bullpups (14-6, 6-3) 58-53 in the Greater Spokane League regular season finale.

Coupled with CV’s 57-56 win over LC, Gonzaga Prep takes the second seed to the 4A districts.

Despite already clinching the league title for the second consecutive season, Anderson said his motivational message was simple.

“The message was, even though we got the league title, we were not going to cut down the nets if we didn’t win tonight. And those girls took that personally.”

Gardner, Mead’s leading scorer, didn’t get her first bucket until midway through the second quarter. She finished with nine points, eight rebounds and six steals. Natalie Braun led Mead with 15 points, and Reese Frederick added 11.

“Every time she got the ball, there were three or four girls around her,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said. “I’ve said this before, I think she’s the GSL MVP. And that’s what they’re gonna do to the GSL MVP.”

“You just gotta keep fighting through,” Gardner said. “If I wasn’t making shots then you got to get other people involved and that’s what happened. Other people were making shots, other people were stepping up and I think that was a team win and we fought it through the end.”

G-Prep senior Lucy Lynn dropped 26 points, including a personal 10-0 run at the start of the fourth to get the Bullpups back in the game.

“She’s so good,” Anderson said of Lynn. “She’s a fighter, and I love that she just fights and she makes us bring our best game.”

G-Prep trailed by 12 entering the fourth quarter. Lynn hit a 3 early in the frame and followed with a layup. Her 3 with just more than 5 minutes to go completed her 10-point run. On the next possession, Rhyan Madden tied it with a short jumper.

“It’s what we expected out of (Gonzaga Prep),” Anderson said. “I told the girls at halftime they’re not going to just settle and lie over. They didn’t do it the first time we played them and they weren’t going to do it this time.”

Braun answered with a pair at the line, then Gardner’s driving scoop gave the Panthers just enough cushion.

“She’s not frustrated about not scoring a lot of points,” Anderson said of Gardner. “She got touches, and she makes really good decisions with them with those touches.”

The Panthers used their daunting full-court press early to force the Bullpups into early mistakes as Mead ran out to a 10-2 lead and the Panthers led 19-11 after one.

Gardner picked up a steal at midcourt and fed Braun for a layup to make it 32-20 at halftime.

Frederick and Gardner hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the third, Miah Cyr added one a few moments later and Mead led 48-36 after three.

“We knew we knew we had the league coming in,” Gardner said, “but we wanted to finish the GSL undefeated and then we knew that we had high expectations for us.”

Boys

Gonzaga Prep 69, Mead 54: Jamil Miller scored 20 points, Henry Sandberg had 18 and the Bullpups (18-3, 8-1) opened up a close game in the fourth quarter to down the Panthers (10-10, 6-3) in the early game.

Mead was led by Kolby Bumpus with 12 points, and Nash Dunham with 10.

Gonzaga Prep, the 4A top seed to districts, hosts Hanford on Friday in a first-round game. Mead ends up as the No. 3 seed in 3A and will travel to the Tri-Cities on Saturday.

“I didn’t think our guys are gonna overlook anything,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “(Mead) played us really tough the first time around and they did so again tonight. The separation between teams at the end of the season always gets a little bit smaller, so you’ve got to bring it every night.”

G-Prep post Carter Verrett used a spin move to score a layin with 20 seconds left in the first half, and the Bullpups led 37-32 at halftime.

“The first half went up and down. And that’s great,” McIntyre said. “We’ll play up and down with almost anybody and we’ll take what they give us. I thought offensively there’s some really, really nice possessions. But we have to clean some stuff up.”

Sandberg went the distance with a steal with 3 minutes left in the third to open a 10-point lead, and G-Prep led 50-42 entering the fourth quarter.