A tremendous season came to disappointing end for the Gruver Greyhound basketball team Thursday night at the Joe Lombard Gymnasium in Canyon.
New Home flexed its muscle with its size and physicality to pull away from the Greyhounds getting a 63-29 victory to win the Region I-2A Division II championship.
The Leopards (31-6) punch a ticket back to the UIL state semifinals where they’ll await Friday’s Lindsay-Lipan winner out of Region II. The Greyhounds see a stellar season come to an end at 19-2 overall.
In a game that was extremely physical between two very aggressive teams, New Home got off to a very good offensive start while Gruver struggled to find a rhythm. The Leopards never trailed in this contest getting off to an 8-2 start and leading 13-5 by the end of one.
In the second quarter, New Home’s Caleb Cook knocked down two 3-pointers in the final four minutes that helped the Leopards build a 29-14 advantage into halftime. In the third quarter, Gruver tried to push New Home, but it was to no avail as the Leopards got out to a 49-27 lead. The wheels fell off for the Greyhounds in the fourth as New Home ended the game on a 13-0 run to put the exclamation point on the victory.
Cook led New Home pouring in a team-high 16 points with nine of those coming in the second quarter. Jake Fogerson and Colby Cook each added 12.
Freshman Mason Lankford paced Gruver with a team-high 15 points.