The Grantsville boys basketball team has not been friendly to its neighbors the past few days.
On the heels of a 25-point victory over Stansbury Friday, the Cowboys pounded Tooele by 22 points Wednesday night.
Grantsville consistently widened the scoring gap throughout the game en route to a 62-40 victory. The Cowboys led by three points after one quarter, nine points by halftime, 16 points after three quarters and 22 points at the final buzzer.
“We just continue to preach defense and rebounding to these guys. Our 2-3 match-up zone works well for us,” said Grantsville coach Chris Baker. “We only made a few slight changes to the defense because things were going so well with the 2-3 tonight. Jake Riding is terrific in the middle of that zone defense; he’s just a great athlete down there and his teammates have so much trust in him. I really can’t say enough about the quality of these young men. They not only play hard to represent the school, but they play hard to represent the entire community.”
The coach mentioned he enjoys the luxury of depth with several talented players on the team, including eight seniors. Nine players scored in the game for the Cowboys led by Devin Adams with 19 and Devon Arellano with 13. Tooele also spread the points around with nine players making baskets led by senior Justin Pollmann with 15. Tooele’s second-leading scorer Tyler Lawrence was held to only three points.
“These local rivalry games are intense, but that’s the way it is with all the teams in the region. We face good teams each game,” Arellano said. “The main thing for us is to play great defense. That’s the key — defense, defense, defense.”
Grantsville’s goal is to limit teams to 40 points or less, and they did that for the ninth time this season to improve its overall record to 14-2. The squad is 3-1 in Region 11 — second place to first place Bear River (4-0), a team it will face Friday night in Garland. Tooele dropped to 1-3 in region with the loss, but is still tied for third place with Stansbury and Ben Lomond. The Buffaloes host Ben Lomond on Friday.
Like Stansbury, Tooele could not make baskets against the Cowboys with a woeful 23 percent field goal rate for the game. Meanwhile, the Cowboys shot 43 percent from the field. Grantsville shot 75 percent from the foul line, and Tooele hit 69 percent from the charity stripe.
Tooele had two technical fouls in the game and Grantsville had one technical. More than one-third of the points scored came from the foul line with Grantsville sinking 20 foul shots and Tooele 21. The two team’s leading scorers were great from the foul line. Adams hit 13-of-13 and Pollmann connected on 13-of-14. Both were not as spectacular from the field with Pollmann making only one-of-10 shots, with Adams slightly better at three-of-nine. The most accurate shooter for the game was Grantsville’s Arellano who connected on six-of-nine from the field which included one 3-pointer.
Grantsville made one-of-eight 3-point shots and Tooele connected on two-of-10 3-pointers.
Tooele grabbed a 7-6 lead midway through the first quarter on four straight foul shots from Pollmann. Grantsville’s Nick Arbon grabbed an offensive rebound with about 2 minutes left in the first quarter and put it in to put Grantsville on top 8-7. The Cowboys stayed out in front the rest of the game.
With Grantsville up 10-7, Tooele freshman Lincoln Powers scored inside to slice the lead to 10-9, then Grantsville’s Dallin Williams sank two foul shots to close out the first quarter with Grantsville up 12-9.
Arellano drilled a 15-footer down the barrel early in the second quarter, and Adams knocked down a baseline jumper as the Cowboys started to pull away up 16-10. The lead swelled to 10 points after a solid rebound and put-back by Grantsville’s Aaron Harrison to make it 22-12.
Harrison continued to clean things up on offense near the basket and banked in another shot to give the Cowboys a 26-12 lead with 30 seconds to go until halftime. Tooele’s Lawrence gave his team some spark just before intermission when he connected on a 3-pointer to make it 26-15 at intermission.
Ryan Brady knocked down a baseline jumper to start the third quarter and slice Grantsville’s lead down to nine. After a drive and score by Riding, each team was whistled with a technical foul. Adams hit two free shots for Grantsville and Pollmann hit two free shots for Tooele. Lawrence and Arellano were the players hit with the technicals.
Grantsville took control in the final three minutes of the third quarter and widened the lead from 10 points to 17 points with 30 seconds left in the period. Matt Memmott stopped the bleeding for Tooele with a 3-pointer to make it 41-27 after three. Tooele’s Powers was whistled for a technical between the third and fourth quarters. Adams knocked down both freebies to make it 43-27.
Grantsville scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and the lead swelled to 24. Midway through the fourth, Grantsville pushed the lead to 26 points.
The Cowboys punctuated the victory with 2 minutes left when Dallin Williams lobbed toward the basket and Adams tipped in the pass with one hand while being fouled for an old-fashioned 3-point play to give GHS a 62-37 lead.
Tooele scoring: Ace Hymas five, Connor Searle three, Pollmann 15, Lawson Ross two, Powers four, Memmott three, Nick Schwartzman two, Brady two, Lawrence three.
Grantsville scoring: Adams 19, Arellano 13, Spencer Lawrence five, Tyler Colson five, Riding four, Arbon four, Harrison four, Cameron Potter two.
mwatson@tooeletranscript.com