Olympia defense shuts down Union shooters, McBride scores big as Bears girls roll, 46-28

Olympia High School wasn’t perfect in its 4A West Central III/Southwest bidistrict opening-round girls basketball game at home Friday night against Union.

Cold from the outside throughout, the Bears made only two 3-pointers, one by Ava Wollin in the first minute, another by Wollin in the final minute. After allowing only one Titans’ free throw during the first half, they found themselves in foul trouble after intermission.

But the things Olympia did well, it did extremely well. The Bears’ perimeter players, taller across the board than Union’s guards, contested nearly every Titan outside shot and blocked several.

And the Bears had Natalia McBride. The 5-foot-11 junior forward almost tripled her 8.3 points per game average with 21 on her way to a double-double as Olympia cruised to a 46-28 victory in a loser-out game.

“My teammates believed in me,” McBride said. “They know if they get me the ball that I’ll be able to do something with it. I trust them to get open if I can’t get something up.”

McBride indeed kicked out to open shooters and had a few “hockey assist” passes to the passer who got credit for an assist.

“They left the middle wide open, which is a field day for me,” she said.

It was the second time Olympia (17-7) held Union (12-9) under 30 points this season as the Bears won a nonleague game in December, 41-28. The Titans also scored just 28 in a loss to Skyview this season but haven’t scored fewer since losing a 2018 bidistrict playoff game to Bellarmine Prep, 57-25.

“We’ve played man all year,” said Workman. “As a coaching staff, I think we do a great job of being super-prepared for their sets. Match-up wise, we were really able to defend their guards. They do take a lot of threes (making four against Olympia), but our guards are long enough to get over the top.

“We knew we also had to take away their dribble penetration. They really like to get going downhill and kick it. I’m really proud of the way we defended on the perimeter.”

Union took its only lead, 3-0, on the game’s first possession when Caitlyn Leake buried a 3-pointer from the right wing. But Wollin, who was Olympia’s second-leading scorer with eight points, quickly matched it.

Shortly thereafter McBride posted up and scored to spark an 18-2 Bears’ run that seemed to settle the question early.

But Zoey Robards, who would lead the Titans with 11 points, hit two post-up shots in the final minute of the half, the second an and-one, to spark a run of 15 straight Union points that carried into the third quarter.

“We got lots of good looks out of our motion, we just didn’t knock ‘em down,” Workman said of the Bears’ cold spell.

The Titans drew to within three points, 24-21, three minutes into the second half when Robards sprang open inside to score off a pass from Eli Fleming. But Union then went without a point for two full minutes, missing several 3-point attempts that would have tied it.

McBride had come out of the game when she picked up her third foul 39 seconds after intermission. Workman believed the Bears could survive defensively but, needing offense, sent her back onto the floor with 3:24 to go in the third.

She immediately grabbed a rebound, then scored five quick points to reassert her presence.

Basketball is often called “a game of runs” and Olympia had the last one, outscoring Union 22-7 after McBride’s return.

McBride said the Bears weren’t rattled by the idea that a loss would end their season.

“We understood the amount of pressure that was there but we didn’t let it shake us. We just knew what we had to do and got it done,” she said.

The final score was the Bears’ largest lead.

The Bears will now travel to face No. 2 seed Tahoma, which lost in an upset to Bellarmine Prep from the 4A SPSL. It’ll be a difficult matchup to slow down Hope Hassmann, one of the area’s top guards.