Olympia takes third place in 4A state tournament, beating Union, 57-48
The final result Saturday afternoon took longtime Olympia High School coach John Kiley on a trip down memory lane.
Back in 1993, in Kiley’s first season as the Bears coach as a 24-year-old, the Bears reached the state semifinals inside the Tacoma Dome, and later routed Centralia in a placing game to take home a third-place trophy.
This weekend in Tacoma, Olympia, which entered the Class 4A state tournament as the No. 11 seed, pulled off upset wins over No. 6 Mariner and No. 5 Tahoma to reach the semifinals in this building for the first time since.
The Bears regrouped from a semifinals loss to top-seeded Mount Si, which set up a meeting with No. 3 Union in the third-fifth place game.
The outcome when they took the court for the final this season?
“Twenty-nine years later, we got third place at the Tacoma Dome,” Kiley said with a smile.
Olympia controlled the game most of the way, shot and defended well to earn a 57-48 win over the Titans.
“Knowing that it was our last game today, and knowing that we could end the season on a win really motivated us to come out and play one more time together, and have a lot of joy doing it,” Bears junior guard Parker Gerrits said.
Gerrits, who averaged a team-leading 15 points per game during the tournament, and led the Bears in scoring all season, had nine points, eight boards, six assists and three steals in the win.
The Bears got key production elsewhere, too. Junior forward Andreas Engholm, who added 12.5 points per game during the Bears’ four games, led the way in the finale with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Senior guard Caden Roth added 12 points, four rebounds and six assists, and junior forward Cree Barna had 10 points and five boards.
Olympia (26-6) shot an efficient 59 percent from the floor during the contest, while holding the Titans to 37.8 percent.
Bryson Metz scored a game-high 18 points for Union (20-7), while Porter Hill and Yanni Fassilis each had 12.
Kiley applauded how Olympia responded to the semifinals defeat to the Wildcats a day earlier, ending the season with a win.
“The guys did a great job,” he said. “You can see they wanted this today.”
The third-place finish is Olympia’s best since 1998, when Kiley guided the Bears to a 3A state championship appearance in the KingDome, where they eventually finished runners-up to Rainier Beach.
The most recent of the program’s two state titles — in 1986 — came when Kiley was a player for the Bears. No, he wasn’t around for the first championship in 1929.
Olympia will look to add another next season, returning much of the young nucleus from this year’s group.
“We’re just ready to get to work right away and go get a championship,” Gerrits said.
Kiley has the same idea in mind.
“Our goal was to win the state championship this year,” he said. “Our goal will be to win the state championship next year.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 5:20 PM.
