State 4A boys: Late outburst by Gavin Gilstrap lifts Central Valley over Skyview, into semifinal

TACOMA – Central Valley has a lot of ways to beat a team.

Ultimately, on Thursday, the Bears relied on their big man.

Six-foot-10 junior Gavin Gilstrap scored CV’s last four points, including a thunderous two-handed dunk that turned into the winning margin, and No. 4 Central Valley outlasted No. 11 Skyview 65-64 in a State 4A quarterfinal at Tacoma Dome.

The Bears (23-2) advance to a semifinal on Friday at 5:30 p.m. against No. 1 Union. Skyview (19-11) falls to the fourth-place bracket.

Jayce Simmons led CV with 17 points. Gilstrap and Noah Sanders finished with 16 apiece. Kyle Gruhler paced Skyview with 31 points and 10 rebounds, while Jace Chatman added 17 and Cody McKinney had 10.

“They’re starting to open some eyes,” CV coach Mike Laws said of his team after their regional win over No. 5 Federal Way. “Now we’ll get over to the Dome and a few more will see ’em.”

Folks at the Dome got an eyeful.

CV led by as many as 18 points in the third quarter and took a 56-46 lead to the fourth. But the Bears went cold and Skyview chipped away, going on a 15-5 run to tie it at 61 with 2:40 left.

Gilstrap banged one in off the glass, then after a steal by sophomore Dylan Darling with 35 seconds left, the Bears ran their offense and got it to the big man again, who slammed it home with authority for a four-point lead with 15.2 seconds left.

“We were just looking for good ball movement,” Gilstrap said. “I was trying to seal. My guy went over the top of me and I saw Jayce get the ball and drive and I was like, ‘Oh well, I’m just gonna step back,’ and he dished to me. I just went up with everything.”

“(Gilstrap) had had a couple of possessions just before that that were a little too deep and he got caught got caught underneath,” Laws said. “But you know, game on the line, ‘You guys give me the damn ball.’ And there we go.”

But it wasn’t over.

Skyview got a pair of free throws from Gruhler and CV turned it over in the backcourt. Sean Boss missed the first of two with 8.1 seconds left but hit the second. The Bears turned it over again, trying to get out of their own end, and the Storm got it back with 3.7 seconds down 65-64 and called time.

Gruhler’s rushed bid for a winner fell awry and CV escaped with the win.

Laws thought his players might have lost focus at the end.

“We didn’t do a good job when we had the lead,” he said. “We were rushing things, and it was a point where we just really needed to execute and kind of put our foot down on the throat.

“We didn’t want to let up and it wasn’t really selfishness. It was just, we gotta hurry, hurry, hurry and get this thing to the end. So yeah, our composure wasn’t real good right there.”

Sanders got CV off quickly with a 3-pointer on the first possession. The Bears later went on a 6-0 run to open an 11-7 lead.

Gilstrap scored through a triple-team, then Darling (eight points) went the distance with a steal and CV led 21-17 after one quarter.

Gruhler used a spin move for a two-handed dunk and Skyview got within one. Simmons and Luke Sukut scored on consecutive possessions and CV led 36-33 at intermission.

The Bears went on an 8-3 run to open the third and Skyview coach Matt Gruhler called timeout not 3 minutes in. But Sanders hit a 3-pointer from the corner the next trip down to open a double-digit lead.

Simmons hit a short jumper and a fastbreak where the ball never hit the floor ended on a Gilstrap layup. Sanders hit a 3-pointer and CV led 54-36 after the 16-point run.

But Skyview answered immediately with a 10-0 run, as Gruhler punctuated a possession with a two-handed jam and CV ended up 56-46 after three.

“Going into (the fourth) I think we all didn’t have the right mindset,” Gilstrap said. “We were thinking it was just gonna go fast. But here, anything could really happen. We have to keep that in the back of our minds, especially with the tough competition coming up next.”

The Storm’s run continued in the fourth. Chatman hit one from the corner and an 8-2 run made it a four-point game with 5 1/2 minutes left.

After a timeout, Sanders hit a 3-pointer to get it back to seven. But Gruhler answered with a 3-pointer and McKinney’s uncontested layup tied it at 61.

Skyview finished third in the 4A Greater St. Helens League behind No. 1 Union and No. 12 Battle Ground. The Storm beat Jackson in a regional and upended No. 6 West Valley (Yakima) 47-31 in a first-round elimination game on Wednesday.