By Greg Lee, NWPrepsNow.com
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At game’s end, before heading to the locker room, Mead girls basketball coach Quantae Anderson stopped and asked how many turnovers his team committed.
When Anderson was told it was nearly as many as the points his team scored, he shook his head.
Defending state champ Gonzaga Prep put on a defensive clinic, especially in the second quarter, as the Bullpups smothered visiting Mead 47-25 in a District 8 4A semifinal Thursday.
“Defensively, we were stellar the whole night,” Bullpups coach Mike Arte said. “It might have been our best defensive performance we’ve had all year.”
After a sloppy start, the Bullpups extended their winning streak to 44, tied for 13th longest in state history.
G-Prep led 8-7 after the first quarter. A 17-0 run later, the Bullpups led 25-7.
A basket by Mead’s season leading scorer Sue Winger – her lone points – with 30 seconds left before halftime allowed the Panthers to walk off the court for halftime at least not skunked in the period.
“That was one of our main focuses for this game,” G-Prep’s Laura Stockton said. “We felt if we could play really good defense, the offense would come along with it.”
It did – even if the Bullpups didn’t shoot as well as they usually do.
“We were getting decent shots,” Arte said. “We just didn’t convert.”
The Bullpups’ big run in the second quarter was highlighted by a 3-pointer and a fastbreak basket by Stockton and back-to-back 3-pointers from Tayler Drynan.
Mead couldn’t dig out of the hole in the second half.
Stockton finished with a game-high 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Drynan added eight points and four assists.
Payton Douglass led Mead with 11 points and six rebounds.
“You can’t win basketball games against a team like that when you have as many turnovers as points,” Anderson said.
Mead finished with 23 turnovers.
G-Prep made 22 of 58 shots, 38 percent – 12 percent less than its average.
“The hardest part of the season is district week,” Arte said.