Gig Harbor Tides roll to upset win over O’Dea, earning first-round bye in state tournament
Down one of their top offensive contributors for the first time all season, the Gig Harbor Tides didn’t flinch.
The sixth-seeded Tides simply picked up the slack across their ranks, quickly erased their only two deficits of the game, and made a ton of free throws down the stretch to upset No. 3 seed O’Dea, 61-51, to win its Class 3A regional at Bellevue College on Saturday morning.
Gig Harbor (23-2) earned a first-round bye for the state tournament that begins on Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome. The Tides will play in a quarterfinal at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday.
O’Dea (20-7) gets a 9 a.m. game against Eastside Catholic to open the tournament on Wednesday morning.
“Our kids hung tough, and all the teams that are left now are really good,” Gig Harbor coach Billy Landram said. “Overall, we really tried to stay with what we do best and they did a great job at that.”
Junior Will Landram, the coach’s son, sat this one out. On the bench in sweats, Landram sprained his ankle in the Tides final district game against Spanaway Lake on Feb. 19. That meant 15 points Gig Harbor needed to find elsewhere against the highly-regarded Irish.
“I wish I was playing out there,” Will Landram said after the game. “But I’ll be playing on Thursday.”
The younger Landram moved without any limp on Saturday, but said his ankle still was “a little colorful.”
“He’s just not quite there yet,” coach Landram said. “Hopefully, he can get as healthy as possible before next Thursday.”
Early on, it was Christian Parrish and Asher Raquiza who took over offensively for Gig Harbor. The pair scored all but two of the Tides first-quarter points as Gig Harbor built an 18-10 lead after the first eight minutes.
“This was important, to show we can play,” Parrish said. “They’re such a storied program. Playing O’Dea, this showed we can play.”
The Irish did take the initial lead just 10 seconds into the game. Mason Williams was the recipient of a pass into the corner and he rose to bury a 3-pointer with 7:50 left in the first quarter.
The 3-0 lead was one of only two O’Dea enjoyed the entire game. The Irish also led it 8-7 on Russell MacFarlane’s basket inside with 3:37 left in the first. The Williams 3-pointer to open the scoring was the only one the Irish made from behind the arc all game.
Raquiza made three from distance in the first quarter alone, scoring nine of his 15 total points. Parrish did his damage by slashing to the rim, making circus scores against tough interior defense.
“I was trying to go for the foul,” Parrish said, smiling.
The Tides maintained their eight-point advantage through the second quarter, taking a 31-23 advantage into the halftime break. O’Dea didn’t go away, however.
Trailing by nine, 36-27, with 4:20 left in the third quarter, the Irish made seven of eight free throws during an 11-3 run to close out the quarter and cut the deficit to just a single point, 39-38, as the fourth quarter began.
A Parrish free throw followed by Antone Araujo’s basket for O’Dea tie the game at 40-40 with 6:38 left. It was tied again at 42-42 with 5:45 remaining.
But then the parade to the free throw line began for Gig Harbor. The Tides made 13 of their next 15 from the stripe, with Luke Browne leading the way, going 10-for-10 in the fourth quarter to finish with 15 points of his own.
“We work really hard on them,” Browne said of free throws. “And I want to be the one taking them at the end.”
Parrish led Gig Harbor’s scoring attack with 16 points, while Ryan Pickles added 12 – including an emphatic breakaway dunk with two seconds to go – to give the Tides four players in double figures. Williams led O’Dea with 12.