Grandview races past East Valley of Yakima in key 2A CWAC matchup
YAKIMA, Wash. -- Six days after nearly clawing its way out of a double-digit deficit in a 2A CWAC loss at Prosser, the fourth-ranked Grandview boys basketball team needed no such heroics Friday night.
The Greyhounds doused the drama early in Friday night's visit to No. 9 East Valley.
Grandview scored the first seven points of the game and rolled past the Red Devils 76-49 to gain ground on the idle Mustangs atop the CWAC standings.
Cameron Draculan, who came into the game averaging a CWAC-best 22.0 points per game, poured in a game-high 26 points and point guard Marcelino Armendariz added 20 points.
DEFENSE DOESN'T REST
After splitting a pair of key CWAC matchups a week ago — a 81-78 win at home against Selah before a 72-67 setback at Prosser — the Greyhounds have won back back-to-back games with two of their best defensive performances of the season.
Grandview smothered Ephrata 64-44 on Tuesday before Friday's victory.
"We've been a little flat lately defensively so we talked about being active and playing with a lot more energy on the defensive end," Hounds coach Frankie Medina said. "That energy on the defensive end carried over to the offensive end."
The frenetic style helped force 17 East Valley turnovers, including a dozen steals that fed the Grandview's fast break.
"We had to come out here and prove a point that we're a better team than we showed last week," Armendariz said. "Exactly what we wanted — we came out and played defense and that's what happens."
TO GREAT LENGTHS
By basketball standards, having a pair of 6-foot-4 players is hardly uncommon. It's relatively gargantuan for Grandview.
"For us, it's like gold," said Medina, himself a former Grandview standout on the diminutive side.
Mavryk Bentley, a 6-4 starter, along with Draculan and Levi Dorsett, both 6-2, led Grandview's stifling defense with their lengthy arms invading the passing lanes.
"For us, just being active in our defense, switching up our zones, and tonight we did that," Medina said.
The Greyhounds took an eight-point lead after the first quarter before extending it to 20 — 39-19 — at the intermission with Draculan and Armendaiz each scoring 10.
East Valley chiseled the lead down to 12 in the third quarter before Armendariz found Titus Jeffry with two no-look passes to cap the period and balloon the lead back to 20.
Any hopes of a Red Devil rally were dashed in the fourth when Draculan scored another 10 points.
Eli Esquivel led the Red Devils with 14 points, and Aidan Kinlow came off the bench for 13, including a half dozen in the first when EV struggled to get going.
TITLE CHASE HEATS UP
Grandview improved to 13-2 overall and is 5-1 at the midway point of CWAC play. The Greyhounds are half a game behind Prosser in the standings and will host the Mustangs on Jan. 27.
East Valley, very much part of the conference race at 4-3 in the CWAC and 12-3 for the season, hosts Selah on Tuesday and travels to Grandview to cap conference play Feb. 2.
