O’Dea beats Kennedy Catholic to earn trip to state final

Race Porter’s block on Keannu Royster’s game-winning attempt sealed a spot for O’Dea in the championship round of the 3A Hardwood Classic as the Fighting Irish defeated Kennedy Catholic, 61-60, on Friday at the Tacoma Dome.

O’Dea was out-rebounded offensively by the Lancers, 12-9, but were able to grind out the final 2 minutes, driving to the basket and creating contact to either lay it up, or get on the free throw line.

Kennedy Catholic’s Matthew Sasonoff, who finished with a game-high 26, was getting open looks at will against the Irish defense. He found a way to get behind the them, and often contorted himself for art-like lay up attempts.

O’Dea relied on driving hard to the basket and creating contact to get themselves in the game, a tactic that worked.

“Our mindset was to either get to the free throw line or get the bucket,” said Fighting Irish senior guard Michael Carter, who scored a team-high 20 points. “My team played real hard. We played good defense at the end to make sure that we kept that lead.”

After two missed free throw attempts by Ryan McAloon, the Lancers raced down the court with less than 15 seconds to play. Jared Thurber threw up a shot, missed, and rebounded the ball. Thurber then dribbled up the court and frantically launched a cross-court pass to Royster, but his shot was blocked as time expired.

Jason Kerr, O’Dea’s coach said, “It’s a seesaw, a battle of runs. It’s an exchange of positive and negatives and you just hope that you get the last positive, and the other team gets the last negative.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 7:54 PM with the headline "O’Dea beats Kennedy Catholic to earn trip to state final."