Olympia upends Mariner, 50-41, in 4A state opening round to return to quarterfinals
Olympia High School is on the way back to the Class 4A state quarterfinals.
Two years ago, the Bears advanced to the bracket’s final eight, and eventually took home a fourth-place trophy for their best finish in nearly a decade.
They were expected to be a championship contender in last season’s 4A tournament — but it was never played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even after such a long delay between appearances, and after All-American forward Jackson Grant, the state’s reigning Gatorade Player of the Year, graduated last spring, this Olympia group proved Wednesday they have a lot left to make a competitive run inside the Tacoma Dome this weekend.
The No. 11 Bears built an early lead on No. 6 Mariner and grabbed another lead late, eventually grinding out a 50-41 upset win in the first round, setting up their second quarterfinals trip in as many tournaments.
“It feels really good to be back,” junior guard Parker Gerrits said. “I know a lot of us were upset that we didn’t have the chance to play here last year.
“So, not just this team, but we’re representing last year’s team, too, to definitely show them that they were meant to be here as well.”
Olympia (24-3) opened the game on an 8-0 run, on 3-pointers from Caden Roth and Gerrits, and the first of 6-foot-7 junior forward Andreas Engholm’s eight buckets in the paint.
Mariner, in the Tacoma Dome for the first time since 2009, answered with its own 8-0 run, and later in the quarter took a one-point lead on a Makai Bloomfield triple, though Olympia answered on the next possession on a basket from Shea Byrnes, and held that lead until the fourth quarter.
Though, neither team scored again until midway through the second quarter, enduring a back-and-forth scoreless drought that lasted nearly five minutes.
Olympia finally broke it on a corner 3-pointer from Roth with 3:51 left in the half, keying a 14-4 run in the second quarter that eventually gave the Bears a double-digit lead by the break.
“We turned it over a lot early — and credit their pressure — but I felt like that was a lot of kids in new time at the Tacoma Dome,” Olympia coach John Kiley said. “I think we settled down and then kind of established a nice little lead there.”
Engholm connected on a pair of free throws, Byrnes hit a short floater and Engholm made a contested layup in the paint before Mariner scored again.
It wasn’t until Isaiah Cuellar found some space on a baseline layup with 1:23 left in the half that the Marauders ended a 10-minute stretch without a basket.
Gerrits later sent the Bears into the half with even more momentum — driving to the 3-point line in the closing seconds, pump faking to shake a defender and then draining a long attempt at the buzzer to make it 26-15.
But, the Marauders (16-10) regrouped in the third quarter, and scored on their first five possessions to close the gap in a hurry.
They eventually took their first lead since the 1:25 mark in the opening quarter when Tijan Saine made a contested shot in the paint to make it 39-38 with 5:26 left in the game.
With Olympia still trailing, Gerrits, the program’s leading scorer entering the tournament at 17.6 points per game, fouled out less than two minutes later.
“We just kind of galvanized,” Engholm said. “We just said, our leading scorer is out, we’ve just got to come together, get stops and just do what we know we can do. We can all score, so just play the way we know we can play.”
The Bears finished the game on a 12-2 run, with junior guard Mason Juergens — who was averaging 5.8 points entering the game — leading the way, scoring all eight of his points in the final four minutes. His driving layup with 3:49 to go gave Olympia its decisive 40-39 advantage.
“I got a lot of confidence from there,” Juergens said. “I realized with Gerrits out, I had to probably get more buckets than I usually do.”
He added another baseline layup with 52 seconds left, and added four free throws — twice sinking both ends of a one-and-one — in the final 30 seconds as the Bears closed out their win.
“I had all of the trust in them that they’ve put in all the work to get here,” Gerrits said of his teammates finished the game. “All throughout the offseason, all throughout the season. … I was really proud of the guys.”
Engholm completed a double-double with a game-high 18 points and 11 boards, while both Gerrits and Roth added 10 points.
Saine and Naser Motley led Mariner with 13 points apiece, while Dakota Joseph had eight.
Olympia moves on to meet No. 5 Tahoma (16-8) at 3:45 p.m. Thursday. Tahoma won the only other meeting between the two programs this season, 56-49, last month in Olympia.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 9:10 PM.
