GRUVER – It wasn’t the prettiest of games between two teams that are adjusting from playing in the UIL state football semifinals just over a month ago and it showed, but when it came down to it, Gruver used aggressive defense and timely scoring runs to jump all over West Texas High for a 48-22 win during a key District 1-2A showdown between a battle of unbeatens at the Greyhounds Gym on Tuesday night.
The win keeps the Greyhounds unbeaten, sitting a perfect 10-0 and more importantly taking the outright league lead at 5-0.
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“It was a big win and we’re on top of the district,” Gruver head basketball coach Brittin East said. “We need to finish it off with Sanford-Fritch later this week to close out the first half of district, but we keep telling the guys our goal isn’t just a district title. Our goal is more than that. We have a high expectation of what we want to achieve this year. So, we have to continue to work to get better and improve on things to make the deep run we want to.”
The Comanches suffered their first loss on the year, dropping to 8-1 while closing out the first half of district play at 5-1.
The key to this win for the Greyhounds was relentless defense. Gruver put the pressure on West Texas High for all four quarters and made life miserable for the Comanches. Behind Brock Butler, Mason Lankford and the rest of the Greyhounds, Gruver forced WT High into a total of 25 miscues.
“As frustrating as the offense is right now, because we are a team of good shooters, it doesn’t matter when we play great defense,” East said. “If we can limit good teams like West Texas High to 20 or 30 points, we’ll win a lot of basketball games. I would have liked to have seen a little more from the offense but I’m proud of the effort we played with.”
That tenacious defense sparked three key offensive runs that separated the Greyhounds from the Comanches from the start. The first big run for Gruver started in the first quarter when the Greyhounds went on a 9-0 spirt for a 10-3 lead behind back-to-back 3-pointers by Jett Pittman. Those six points were part of 10 on the night for Pittman.
The next scoring stint came in the second quarter. In the final three minutes of the half, Gruver went on a 7-0 run highlighted by an emphatic dunk by the sophomore, Lankford. That put Gruver up comfortably 24-10 at the break.
In the third, the Greyhounds iced the game with another 7-0 run led by Butler.
Butler did finish the contest with 11 points, but it was his defense that did the job, getting a total of eight steals.
“We play really aggressive and that’s what we love to do on defense,” said Butler, who also took a charge in the win. “When we work together on defense our goal is to make it hard for teams to score and create turnovers. It’s fun when we get that going.”
Lankford led the Greyhounds in scoring with 13 despite a struggle shooting from the floor. Like most of the team, Lankford helped earn this win with his defense and ability to run the offense.
“It’s a team effort, and we preach that everyday,” Lankford said. “The offense might not be there some nights but the defense always has to be there and it was for us in this game.”
WT High never had a flow and were out of sync finding the bucket the entire four quarters. What also didn’t help, was the Comanches going 4-for-17 at the free-throw line. Despite a defeat, head coach Aron Graves know there are some positives his team can take forward.
“It was good for us,” Graves said. “We haven’t played someone with the power that Gruver has. We knew they would take us out of what we do. I felt like we weren’t disciplined enough but I thought we defended well. To hold them under 50 is a good sign. We just have to get better offensively.”