Bulldogs Take BVL Title, Gridley Girls' Basketball Falls at LP
Feb 19, 2024 05:10PM ● By Steven Bryla, photos by Steven Bryla
Boys Basketball
GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - The Gridley boys basketball team won the Butte View League championship outright as they dismantled the Las Plumas Thunderbirds in a 64-53 victory on Friday, February 9.
On top of winning the BVL championships, Gridley honored their five seniors (Brian Brown, Travus Boyd, Shmaas Khan, Conner Johns and Aaron Kullar) prior to the start of the game like all schools do for their final home regular season game.
Las Plumas opened the game up with a 3-0 lead shortly after the tipoff, but that’s all they would manage to score in the first quarter as the Bulldogs’ applied relentless defensive pressure and grittiness, diving on the floor for every loose ball.
Gridley was able to get the ball into the basket, unlike the Thunderbirds, as they went on a 20-0 run to end the quarter and led 20-3 at the end of the first.
Gridley senior
forward Aaron Kullar (23) throws a pass inside the paint in the Bulldogs’ 64-53
victory against Las Plumas on Friday, February 9.
Las Plumas did manage to make shots in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs continued their aggressiveness on both sides of the ball and took a 34-19 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Gridley had an entire week to prepare for the game against the lone team who had beaten them in BVL play, and Head Coach Nathan Link expressed to the Herald that they emphasized defense during practice leading up to the game.
“When we played them last time (Jan. 23) we knew they had a lot of good shooters; we emphasized defending the three-point line,” Link said.
He added that during the Jan. 23 game film at Las Plumas, he noticed the Bulldogs were focused on defending the perimeter too much and the Thunderbirds were driving through the Gridley defense to get a lot of easy shots.
“We focused on containing them and forcing them to shoot from the outside,” Link said.
Las Plumas depended on the three-point shot in the game as they attempted three-point shots and were successful with them.
In the third quarter, the Thunderbirds closed the Bulldogs’ lead to nine with a lot of help from making those three-point shots.
In the fourth quarter, Las Plumas was only able to get their deficit down to eight points at the least before Gridley was able to build the lead back to double-digits and close out for the 11-point victory.
Bulldogs senior forward Aaron Kullar told the Herald he and his teammates were locked in on practice this week and they accomplished a team goal of winning the BVL, but they are not done. “This is step one,” Kullar said.
Gridley senior guard Travus Boyd (4) shoots a shot in the
Bulldogs’ 64-53 win over Las Plumas on Friday, February 9.
Kullar added that focus is going to be the emphasis moving forward into the playoffs.
“We can’t make little mistakes, we have to stay locked in,” Kullar said.
Gridley was given the first overall seed in the Northern Section CIF Division IV playoffs and host the winner of Pierce/Winters tonight at 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball
OROVILLE, CA (MPG) - The Gridley girls basketball team fell to the Las Plumas Thunderbirds on the road in a 52-37 defeat on Friday, February 9, and fell into a four-way tie for first place in the Butte View League.
Las Plumas opened the game with a 9-0 run and the Lady Bulldogs were able to get the game within one possession a couple of times in the first half, but the lady Thunderbirds eventually made the margin too big for the Lady Bulldogs to get within striking distance.
Gridley junior forward Brook Marr (2) blocks the game-tying shot for Las Plumas on January 23 in the Lady Bulldogs’ 37-35 win.
Las Plumas was up 30-16 at the end of the first half.
Despite 23 points from junior forward Brook Marr, Gridley couldn’t pull off the comeback in the second half. The Lady Bulldogs were given the sixth seed in the Northern Section CIF Division IV playoffs as brackets were released on Saturday, February 10.
Gridley hosted Lassen on Tuesday night in the first round of the playoffs. The winner of the game traveled to Colusa.
