Olympia’s comeback falls short against No. 1 Union in 4A district tournament
Olympia made things interesting with a ferocious comeback in the second quarter against undefeated Union, but the Titans held off the attack from the Bears and prevailed, 70-57 at Wilson High School in Tacoma in Friday night’s Class 4A West Central/Southwest bidistrict tournament basketball game.
Here’s what we learned from Union’s win.
TITANS ARE AS GOOD AS ADVERTISED
Union came into the game with an unblemished 21-0 record and is the No. 1 Class 4A ranked team in the WIAA’s RPI. They’re a physical, veteran, aggressive, athletic team and every player in the starting five can score, led by 6-foot-5 senior guard Tanner Toolson, who scored a game-high 21 points in the win over Olympia. Mason Hill chipped in 15 points, Josh Reznick scored 14 and Kaden Horn scored 13 points.
“They’re very athletic and they can shoot the ball,” said Olympia coach John Kiley.
The Titans made nine 3-pointers in the win, and that type of explosive offensive balance could take Union all the way to a Class 4A state title.
TURNOVERS COST OLYMPIA
And the Titans play defense, too. Union spent the entire game in a full-court press, forcing 16 Olympia turnovers — seven of which came in the first quarter, when Union jumped out to a 25-9 lead.
“I thought we shot ourselves in the foot early in those situations against the press,” Kiley said. “Getting down 25-9 didn’t sit well with me. They were athletic, they’re long, they’re quick. But I think we could’ve done a better job cleaning some of that stuff up.”
Union coach Blake Conley said his team had their work cut out for them against Olympia.
“The hard part is, hey have such a good defense with switching it up so much,” he said. “When we score, we can set up the pressure.”
WAS JACKSON GRANT INVOLVED ENOUGH?
The 6-foot-10 UW commit posted his usual scoring production, scoring 17 points for the Bears in the loss. But he didn’t consistently start getting touches in the post until the second quarter, when Olympia was trying to crawl out of a hole. For a player that is such a clear mismatch for nearly every opponent on Olympia’s schedule, Kiley knows the Bears need to get him more involved from the tip. But he also acknowledged Union’s defensive gameplan on containing Grant and denying easy entry to the post.
“It’s challenging to play high like that,” Kiley said. “When that happens, you either strategically do some things. He has to pin, you have to skip some passes — they helped really hard, we’ve seen it all year. So yes, we want him to get the ball more, but teams like that do a pretty good job. So we have to do a better job of making sure he gets those touches. Tonight, I thought they did a better job than we did in terms of that matchup.”
Senior guard Kai Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points for the Bears and senior Ethan Gahm had a strong game, scoring 15 points.
Olympia will face SPSL 4A peer Puyallup on Monday at 6:45 at Mount Tahoma High School in a loser-out game.
“You want your season to go on, you better take care of the ball, you better score the ball and you better defend all together,” Kiley said. “You do all that stuff, you’re going to keep playing. Whichever team on the floor that is going to do that better and executes better will keep playing.”
