The conversation surrounding if the Gruver Lady Hounds youth will get in the way at some point during the Texas High School UIL basketball playoffs is quickly coming to an end by the week.
Gruver looked like savvy veterans playing very poised in the first quarter, which set the tone for a 55-40 win over New Home to win the Region I-2A Division II championship at a jam-packed Caprock Activity Center on Thursday night.
This new generation of Lady Hounds are carrying on the strong tradition of Gruver girls basketball, claiming the first regional title since 2023.
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“Winning this regional championship feels a lot different than it has in the past,” Gruver head coach Trent Lankford said. “We weren’t playing in a regional tournament and we weren’t playing in Levelland. That’s not a bad thing, I loved winning this in Amarillo, and in front our awesome crowd, so the feeling of that is the same. I’m just so proud of this team.”
Gruver (30-5) is now on to the UIL Class 2A Division II state semifinals for a showdown with Lipan (33-5) at a time and place to be determined.
Coach Lankford couldn’t have asked for a better start from his Lady Hounds against a very aggressive Lady Leopards (26-12) team. Gruver opened the contest on a 10-1 run behind back-to-back 3-pointers from Ella Stewart and Paisley Quirk. The Lady Hounds continued to push the pace and rebounded extremely well, going up 16-6 on a pair of transition layups by Payton Merkel.
“Getting off to a quick start was going to be very key to tamper down their energy and effort,” Lankford said. “I thought we did that. It helped us calm down a little bit. I thought we still played very young at times, but that first quarter was very big for us.”
New Home did its best to chip away in the second and third quarter, but anytime the Lady Leopards gained any momentum, Gruver was able to answer in a hurry.
In the second quarter, the Lady Leopards had cut the Lady Hounds lead to 19-14 only to see Kortlyn Born take advantage of turnovers for back-to-back transition buckets as Gruver went into halftime up 23-14.
In the third quarter, New Home battled to knock the advantage down at 28-22, then Merkel came off a screen and drilled a 3-pointer from the near timeline, putting the Lady Hounds right back up 31-22.
“I feel like we’ve been able to answer all year when teams try to rally against us,” Merkel said. “It’s something we work on in practice and talk about. It’s also something we pride ourselves on.”
Coach Lankford agreed with Merkel’s comment.
“This team has figured out ways to answer all season,” Lankford said. “When a team makes a run or scores to make it close, we have had the ability to score right back at them. Those are big moments for us and we haven’t been afraid of them. It was big for us to steal the momentum back when we did.”
Merkel not only did her job on the defensive end with key steals throughout the game, but the freshman finished with 21 points to lead Gruver. Merkel’s highlight was at the free-throw line against New Home, going 12-of-13, including a perfect 10-of-10 in the fourth quarter alone.
Born followed with 11 points and Stewart had nine points by way of three, 3-pointers.
New Home’s Kirbi Johnson tallied a team-high 14 points with teammate Kelby Johnson registering 11.