Freshman Aylah Cornwall shines, Gonzaga Prep beats Davis in 4A semifinals
This week’s successes had a foundation in last season’s accomplishments for the Gonzaga Prep Bullpups.
“Getting over here last year was a big deal,” Gonzaga Prep coach Goeff Arte said. “Because it planted the seed like, ‘We can do this,’ so …”
On Friday, the Bullpups just kept doing what they’ve been doing since Wednesday. They beat another higher seed in the Davis Pirates, 67-60, at the Tacoma Dome. The difference was, this time it sent Gonzaga Prep back to the state 4A girls championship game.
The last two times the Bullpups made it to the final game on Saturday night, they won titles. That was in 2014 and 2015, and it ended a four-year run of state trophies for the program.
The next time Gonzaga Prep saw the bright lights was a year ago, when it won on Wednesday but then dropped two games and left a day short of winning any hardware.
This time around the Bullpups have assured themselves of at least a second-place finish. They’ll face a third consecutive Top 5 team in No. 1 Camas, who beat No. 4 Sumner to earn its spot in its second consecutive title game.
The Papermakers lost to Eastlake, 48-41, in the championship game a year ago.
“They’re a Top 25 team in the nation, when you watch them play,” Arte said of Camas. “We’ll just keep battling. Battle, battle, battle and hope it turns out at the end.”
The Bullpups led Davis at the half, 34-30, and scored the first basket of the third quarter to go up six, 36-30. But a 16-0 run from the Pirates over most of the remaining third quarter clock staked Davis to a 46-36 lead – and proved the largest by either team on the night.
By quarter’s end, though, Gonzaga Prep had whittled the advantage back to six, 50-44, and with their top scorers - Esmeralda Galindo and Cheyenne Hull – both in foul trouble and therefore rarely on the floor at the same time, Davis struggled to score in the fourth quarter.
“If Cheyenne is not in foul trouble, that’s a very different game I can promise you,” Davis coach Akil White said. “It’s tough when your top two players don’t get to play together. What were they on the floor together, 11 minutes or something?”
Galindo still managed to score 23 points and grab six rebounds for Davis. Hull, who was forced to sit more minutes than Galindo, scored a tournament-low for her of eight points to go with 11 rebounds.
And even though the Pirates are out of the title race in their first-ever trip to the Dome, the journey isn’t over. Davis plays Sumner for third and fifth places at 11:15 a.m. Saturday in a rematch of the Regional round matchup won by the Spartans, 63-60, just a week ago.
But, behind Aylah Cornwall’s game-high 24 points (and 10 rebounds) and Olivia McIntyre’s 21 points, the Bullpups title run continues.
“We just play our hearts out, all the time,” said Cornwall, a freshman who wasn’t part of the 2023 run. “We play for each other.”
It’s certainly paid off this week.
“We’ve been good for a few years,” Arte said. “We just haven’t gotten over here.”