Olympia headed to 4A semifinals after holding off Tahoma surge, 60-53
As far as basketball skillsets go, Olympia junior guard Mason Juergens isn’t the most talented player on the Bears’ roster. He’s not one of the team’s leading scorers. Actually, his future in sports at the next level will likely be in a football uniform (Juergens was a first-team selection to The News Tribune’s 2021 All-Area football team as a receiver for the Bears).
But what Juergens does have is a clutch gene. For the second day in a row, when the game was on the line in the fourth quarter, Juergens took over. Tied against Tahoma with 1 minute, 25 seconds to play in the Class 4A high school boys basketball state tournament quarterfinal round on Thursday night, Juergens found himself with an open 3-pointer in the corner.
He sank it, giving Olympia the lead, and proceeded to make 5 of 6 free throws in the final minute to ice the game in a 60-53 win and send the Bears to Friday’s state semifinals at the Tacoma Dome
“I’ve been missing from 3 this whole time at the Dome and I had to make one eventually,” Juergens said. “I was in the corner, it was my time, decided to shoot it, saw it went in and I was happy about it.”
Juergens, for his part, could care less how many points he puts up on any given night. The only thing he’s concerned about is what the scoreboard says when the clock hits zero.
“I just wanna win,” he said. “I’ll do anything we can to win. If that’s making free throws, if that’s playing defense, if that’s rebounding, I’ll do anything we can to win.”
Olympia coach John Kiley said Juergens is probably the best pure athlete on the team.
“Athletes have a tendency to rise at a time when it’s needed, and he sure has that ability,” Kiley said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without him.”
Olympia junior guard Parker Gerrits led the Bears with 22 points and forward Andreas Engholm added 14. For Tahoma, Carson Talbert scored a team-high 18 points, while Kody Kasper added 13.
Olympia led by 10 at half, but Tahoma stormed back, outscoring Olympia 21-10 in the third quarter to take a one-point lead heading into the final period. It was a similar story to the District 3/4 tournament recently, when Tahoma beat Olympia.
“They did similar to what they did here, came out (hot) in the third quarter,” Kiley said. “I felt like we did a better job moving the ball (this time). We had very few assists in the game at our place a few weeks ago. That game catapulted us to the next level when we look back at how we were playing. We weren’t playing like we want to play. We want to move the ball, be unselfish, get the best shot. … That change, I think that’s been a big reason why we’ve ascended to where we are right now.”
Friday’s semifinal appearance is Olympia’s first since 1998, when the Bears defeated Mercer Island before falling to Rainier Beach in the Class 3A state championship game. Olympia’s most recent state tournament appearance came in 2020, when the Jackson Grant-led Bears took fourth place. Last year’s state tournament was canceled because of the pandemic.
“Two years ago, we had a really nice group of players and took fourth,” Kiley said. Last year, I think we would’ve been one of the favorites. So there’s been a real simmer of disappointment the last year. Our guys have worked — you look at their bodies — they’ve worked hard. We had a model of ‘reload,’ because I wanted that mindset because we have great athletes.”
Olympia will face No. 1 Mount Si in the state semifinal round at 7:15 p.m. on Friday at the Tacoma Dome.
