Rockland knocks off Grace Lutheran in battle of 1A powers

ROCKLAND — In a battle of top 1A contenders, the undersized Rockland Bulldogs used defensive fluidity to slow the much larger Grace Lutheran Royals and earn a home victory — handing the Royals their first loss of the season.

With a swarm of guards who stand 6-foot and shorter, the Bulldogs (7-2, 1-0) effectively slowed the 6-foot-6 and uber-athletic Garrett Grayson. And just when Grayson and the Royals (6-1, 0-1) seemed like they were ready to take the game over, Rockland’s star, Woodrow Lowder, broke out of what had been a slow night, pushing his squad to a 54-38 win.

Before the game, Rockland head coach Shae Neal told EastIdahoSports.com that the key to his team slowing Grace Lutheran’s twin towers of the “phenomenal” Grayson and 6-foot-5 Rylan Ward was aggressive play from his guards. After the game, he expanded on that, and spoke about how those guards did in that assignment.

There aren’t many players across the state with Grayson’s combination of size and athleticism, especially at the 1A level, Neal said, making him a difficult player to prep for.

“We did an OK job of, kinda, clogging up that middle and saying, ‘Hey, you can maybe beat us from the outside,'” the coach said. “We had to make him shoot tough shots, contested shots — we’re not going to block him, because he can jump out of the gym.”

Rockland worked to pressure the ball-handlers and force their entry passes to be lobs rather than direct passes, allowing Rockland’s help-side defender time to rotate over for double-teams.

For three quarter, that approached worked, as Grayson entered the fourth with 10 points.

With his team trailing by 16, however, Grayson created space, first hitting a 3-pointer then blocking a shot, grabbing the rebound and going the length of the court for a layup.

In less than two minutes, Grayson scored seven points, cutting Rockland’s lead to nine.

Like Grayson, Rockland’s leading scorer, Lowder, had been less effective than usual, entering the fourth quarter with 12 inefficient points.

Neal suggested that early foul trouble, forcing him to the bench for much of the first quarter, may have negatively impacted Lowder’s rhythm. Despite the off-night, though, Neal said that Lowder was still the primary scoring option.

“He’s our go-to guy. If we need a bucket, we try to get him a shot,” he said.

While Xavier Parrish and Isaac Held refocused Rockland’s aggressive play in the passing lane, preventing Grayson from touching the ball after an early Bulldog timeout in the fourth, Lowder found his shot.

The senior guard scored 11 of his game-high 23 in the fourth quarter.

After the game, Lowder said that he spends a lot of time working on his shot, but he also works on his mental fortitude, saying that the key to bouncing back from a slow start is erasing mistakes from his memory and keeping his eyes on the next play, the next shot.

“I don’t want to let my team down, so I put in the work off-court so that I’m ready for those moments,” he said.

Lowder spoke after the game about how big it was to get this win, over a very tough conference opponent after a 17-day layoff.

Neal also spoke about the extended break, saying that even though the team practiced throughout the holiday break, they looked like they hadn’t played a game in more than two weeks.

“We were a little sluggish, out of sorts, but that was a good win, a good battle,” he said.

Grayson finished with 17 points, three rebounds, one block and one steal, while Ward added eight points, eight rebounds, two blocks and one steal.

Lowder grabbed four rebounds and swiped one steal to go along with his 23 points. Held chipped in eight points, 10 rebounds and three steals, with another 10 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks coming from Parrish.

The Bulldogs, who brought home a third-place trophy from last year’s state tournament despite playing without Held, will look to build upon this win with the playoffs just over a month away.

They will be back on the court Saturday, when they visit Leadore (3-2, 0-0).

Grace Lutheran, which was without Grayson down the stretch last season, coming up short of a state tournament berth, will be right back at it Thursday, hosting Sho-Ban (2-0, 0-0).