Gonzaga Prep girls use balanced scoring to pull away from Lewis and Clark; G-Prep boys run away from Tigers

The difference in one seed might not seem like a lot, but it can mean up to 150 miles and a three-hour bus ride on a school night.

The Greater Spokane League’s No. 2 seed to the District 6 4A tournament gets the privilege of hosting a first-round game instead of having to travel to the Tri-Cities to face the Mid-Columbia Conference No. 2 seed.

Mead has a strong hold on the girls top 4A seed to districts, but second place is up for grabs, with Gonzaga Prep – second at state last season – and Ferris at 3-3 in league entering play Friday, with Lewis and Clark just a game behind.

The young Bullpups, who had lost three of their past five, made a statement on Friday and strengthened their postseason aspirations in the process.

Laura Thompson scored 14 points to lead three in double figures and the host Bullpups (12-6, 4-3) pulled away from the Tigers (9-10, 2-5) 60-46 to earn an important tiebreaker in the district playoff race.

Freshman Sharissa Byrd scored 11 points and sophomore Quinn Pederson added 10 for G-Prep. Sadie Pierce led LC with 14 points and Ruby Shaw added 11.

“That was a great indicator of playoff basketball, because we’re pretty methodical tonight,” Gonzaga Prep coach Geoff Arte said. “We haven’t been that the last couple of weeks, so I’ll take that kind of win.”

Arte knows how important that first home game in the playoffs can be.

“You want as many home games as you can get in the district playoffs, because it’s going to be a bear no matter,” he said. “The road is just going to be tricky, no matter where you are seeded.”

There’s a logjam for the middle seeds because it’s a top-heavy league this year.

“I think what’s happening is the league’s getting better,” Arte said. “You can see – the middle of the pack is kind of all jumbled up right now with all the losses to Mead, (Central Valley) and Ridgeline. So yeah, this was a big one for us.”

“The Mead game, it was a big loss,” Pederson said of the 66-47 decision on Jan. 17. “But we just use every loss to motivate us to do better. And I think with these next few games we’ll have some momentum.”

Six Bullpups scored in the first quarter and G-Prep led 13-12 . Scoring was slow on both sides for most of the second quarter, but the Bullpups closed on an 8-0 run – including five from Byrd – and led 29-18 at halftime.

“She’s a tough kid,” Arte said of Byrd. “She’s real smooth and plays really hard. And that’s all you’re really asking for a freshman. … You don’t have to teach her how to play hard.”

Pederson nailed back-to-back 3-pointers early in the third quarter to open the lead to 18 points. The Bullpups outscored the Tigers by 10 in the quarter and led 49-38 .

“I wasn’t really shooting great in the beginning of the game,” Pederson said. “But I think when I started to kind of get a roll on, it kind of built our confidence. … It got me going, at least.”

“(Pederson) has been shooting it really well all year,” Arte said. “She’s just a great spot-up shooter, and in that zone we just had to make sure we found where she was. I thought our kids did a really good job of engaging some defenders and knowing where she was at so that (Pederson) got some clean looks.”

Boys

Gonzaga Prep 86, Lewis and Clark 33: Brogan Howell led four in double figures with 15 points and the No. 1-ranked Bullpups (17-2, 7-0) beat the visiting Tigers (4-15, 2-5). KJ Kinkaid led LC with 12 points.