Olympia scores early and often, moves into loss-column tie for 4A SPSL lead with Puyallup and Sumner

The phrase “made quick work of” comes from boxing where a fighter can, indeed, end a contest early with the right combination of punches.

If ever the term could be applied to boys high school basketball, where the full 32 minutes will be played out one way or another, it was Saturday night at Chick Rockey Gym.

Host Olympia High School led by as many as 30 points before halftime and stayed in control for an 87-61 rout of visiting Puyallup in a Class 4A South Puget Sound League showdown. The victory, combined with Sumner’s 54-51 road loss at South Kitsap, left the Bears, Vikings and Spartans tied for first place in the loss column with two defeats apiece.

Olympia (7-2) does still trail Sumner and Puyallup (7-4) by a half-game overall since they are 4-2 in league play and the others are 5-2.

Kai Johnson, the Bears’ 6-foot-3 junior guard led the game in scoring with 26 points while 6-9 University of Washington commit Jackson Grant, a junior, added 25, including four dunks and a three-pointer. All five Olympia starters scored at least nine points.

Cobi Campbell, as usual, led Puyallup with 19 while freshman guard Taki Uluilakepa and 6-4 junior forward Luke Holcomb added 14 each.

The Bears hadn’t played in 12 days and made the most of their rest and preparation time.

Ethan Gahm and Zack Swanson opened the game with back-to-back three-point baskets for Olympia, but Campbell countered with the first of his three treys. With two minutes played it was back to a one possession game.

Not for long.

Olympia rolled off the next 14 points before Holcomb scored on a floater in the lane for Puyallup. By the end of the first quarter, it was 24-5. With just over two minutes to play before intermission, the Bears took the first of two 30-point leads, 37-7.

“They were ready to play and had great intensity,” said Puyallup coach Scott Campbell. “We weren’t close to matching it.”

“All week of practice was super perfect,” said Gahm, who finished with 10 points. “We were perfectly prepared. We were already kind of rolling with five straight wins (now six), we feel like we’re clicking and should play like that every game.”

Bears coach John Kiley pointed to the fact Olympia did not travel to a tournament over the winter break as a plus in that preparation and Johnson, whose outburst of six quick points highlighted the first quarter run, agreed.

“Our team really came together in those 12 days,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if we thought we’d get out to such a big lead, but that was the work we put in paying off.”

Added Kiley, “I’m so proud of our guys. We took it very seriously to get better every day over the break and we saw some of that tonight. We know we’ve got parts, everyone knows we’ve got parts, but the parts are starting to come together.”

The Bears started the season 1-2, but six consecutive wins followed, starting with a thumping of a tough Battle Ground team last month and most recently featuring Saturday’s win over the 4A co-leader Puyallup.

“Those first two losses were a reality check,” Johnson said. “Now we know who we are, we’ve had a chance to regroup and be who we want to be and go where we’re going from here.”

Uluilakepa gave Puyallup a spark of hope when he made a free throw, stole the ball as Olympia brought the ball upcourt afterward and nailed a three at the halftime buzzer to cut it to 39-13.

The Vikings best moments came late in the third quarter.

With just under five minutes left in the period, senior guard Joseph Dwyer sank a free throw to cut Olympia’s lead to 43-21. Puyallup subbed in Marquel Thomas to stop the action and let the Vikings set up in a 2-2-1 press.

“At that point you have to try some things. I thought we responded and played them even the second half,” said Campbell.

The press proved effective, flustering the Bears just enough that Puyallup went on a modest 22-14 run to cut Olympia’s lead to the least it would be after the game’s first four minutes, 57-43.

“We knew the press was coming,” Gahm said. “But we didn’t have the mixture of people in the lineup to handle the press.”

But the Bears countered with an 11-0 spurt fueled by two baskets each from Johnson and Grant to retake a 25-point lead and both coaches began to substitute players who had not yet played.

“Once we figured out how to deal with the press, we got some easy buckets off it,” said Johnson.

Campbell, whose team split narrow home victories with Olympia last season, says his team will learn from the emphatic defeat and bounce back.

“We’re learning how hard to prepare, how hard to play. We’re getting tougher,” he said.

“Sometimes those lessons don’t taste good.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 10:55 PM.