The No. 1 Gruver Lady Hounds won the Region I-2A championship on Saturday at The Texan Dome in Levelland. [Ben Jenkins/ Press Pass Sports]
LEVELLAND— Gruver had to earn every bit of its No. 1 ranking over two days at the Region I-2A Tournament at the Texan Dome on the campus of South Plains College, but when the dust settled the heavily favored Lady Hounds lived up to their expectation.
Gruver survived a massive scare from New Home sneaking away with a 47-44 overtime win on Friday. On Saturday, the Lady Hounds held off a valiant third quarter effort by Wellington in the regional championship pulling away for a 44-28 victory, punching a ticket back to the UIL Class 2A State Tournament in San Antonio for the second time in three years.
Gruver also keeps its perfect record intact improving to 31-0 overall.
“I’m super proud of this team,” Gruver head coach Trent Lankford said. “The two teams we played this weekend were extremely good. We had some adversity, and we know that’s going to happen. It’s how we respond is what we talk about most, and we responded really well.”
Saturday’s contest looked to be a lopsided affair with the Lady Hounds getting out to a tremendous start. Gruver dominated the first 12 minutes opening the matchup on a 20-4 run led by senior Callie Conyers. Conyers knocked down two big 3-pointers, as well as put points up in the paint scoring 12 points in the first half alone putting the Lady Hounds up 24-11 at the half.
“We do a great job feeding off each other,” Conyers said. “We always pick each other up with our energy and we had that going. In the first half I had some open looks, and we always say if there is an open look to take it. My team was able to help get me open and I knocked them down.”
Wellington (29-8) didn’t back down. The Lady Skyrockets blasted off in the third quarter outscoring Gruver 11-5 during those eight minutes behind senior leader Kyla Kane. The guard knocked down two key 3-point buckets, then added a layup, scoring eight points in the quarter. What looked like a comfortable lead for Gruver quickly became a ballgame with Wellington trailing 27-22 with a 1:30 left in the third.
“We had swung the momentum,” Wellington head coach Chris Sumrall said. “Give our team credit. We were down 16 in the first half and we battled back to give ourself a chance.”
As quickly as the Lady Skyrockets had cut into Gruver’s deficit, the Lady Hounds swung the momentum right back. Senior guard and Texas Tech signee, Bailey Maupin, opened the fourth quarter with two buckets in the paint, followed by a Camryn Armes jumper, and like that Gruver had gone up 11 points. From there, the Lady Hounds put the game away going on a 15-0 run to that sealed the win.
“Offensively we weren’t getting the looks we wanted,” Lankford said. “We went back to our high-low offense and we started getting the looks we wanted. We started playing patient and we knocked down the shots.
Maupin echoed Lankford’s comments.
“At this point it was just survive and advance,” Maupin said. “It didn’t matter if we won by one point or 20. We just wanted the win and we got it. Wellington is a great team, and we feel we’re a great team. It was fun to play in this environment, but now it’s time to take a business trip to San Antonio and go win state again.”
The Lady Hounds won their first UIL Class 2A state championship in 2020.
Conyers finished with a game-high 19 points with Maupin adding 15. Kane, who played in her final game in a Wellington jersey after a stellar four-year career, led the Lady Skyrockets with
11.
Gruver 13 24 29 44
Wellington 4 11 22 28
G— Callie Conyers 19, Bailey Maupin 15
W— Kyla Kane 11, Asia Shrubs 7. Records: Gruver 31-0; Wellington 29-8.