Alex Grunhovd isn’t one to seek out the spotlight, but it has found him with his play this season for the Lake Mills boys’ basketball team.

Grunhovd, a junior point guard for the Bulldogs, may epitomize what high school coaches look for in a point guard and as such he’d rather have any kind of special attention directed his way. That’s a little difficult considering he leads the entire state of Iowa in assists.

“I don’t really like being in the spotlight,” Grunhovd said.”I like passing the ball more than anything else. I just like giving other people a chance to score.”

Grunhovd has 117 assists in 15 games, good for 7.8 a game and he’s getting it done by making the simple pass, said Bulldogs head coach Kyle Menke.

“He gets a lot of his assists just on swinging the ball to Chris (Throne) for 3s, feeding the posts correctly,” Menke said. “He’s just a very good fundamental passer. It’s fun to watch him play.”

Lake Mills (12-4) has pushed the pace of its offense and tried to get into transition quicker this season and that has fit Grunhovd’s skills well.

“He’s the best transition passer I’ve ever had,” Menke said. “He’s great at pushing the ball and finding guys at the right time when they’re open. A lot of his assists are not flashy. You’re not going to see behind the back passes and no-look stuff like that. It’s just fundamental basketball.”

Grunhovd has plenty of options on the team. Throne, a senior is among the state’s top scorers and averages 20.8 points per game, but the Bulldogs have two other players who average more than 10 points a game and another just below 10 per game.

Junior Marcus Gaskill averages 14.5 points per game and Tyler Rice averages 11.3 while Jordan Colby is at 9.4 points per game.

As a team the Bulldogs rank third in the state in assists and with a balanced team like Menke has this season it’s no surprise.

“We don’t talk a whole lot about individual statistics in our practices, but we have talked a lot about this assist thing because that is a stat that requires unselfishness,” Menke said. “It shows that we are doing the things that we want to on the court.”

Grunhovd doesn’t pay much attention to his statistics, even when he first heard about it from teammate Chris Throne, he didn’t believe him. Grunhovd said he doesn’t spend much time looking at stats on quikstatsiowa.com, instead he focuses on his defense and what he has to do to help the team much of the time.

But if there one area Menke wants Grunhovd to work on it’s his offense.

“Al is almost too unselfish at times, but I tell you what, you’d rather have it that way than vice versa,” Menke said. “There are times where I would like him to take a few more open jumpshots or drive to the basket and take his own shot. He has been doing that more. He is very capable of scoring 10 to 12 points.”

He won’t score 10 to 12 points very often because he’s content not scoring any points as long as the team wins. Grunhovd has twice as many assists as he does points. He has four games where he’s recorded double-digit totals in assists, but just one game where he’s scored in double figures.

“I just try to focus on defense mainly and the game and how it plays out in my head,” he said.