The Bears had a 90-minute practice Saturday morning at Olympia High School after their team breakfast and before their afternoon semifinal game against Mount Rainier at Auburn High School.
The main objective? How to handle the athletic Rams’ full-court press and defensive pressure – something Olympia coach Luke Salme noted his squad hadn’t seen from opposing teams all season.
That practice made a difference, and the Bears claimed a 63-59 victory over the Rams to earn a trip to the bi-district title game against Curtis at 6 p.m. Monday at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
“We really worked on how it’s going to take five guys throughout the game,” Salme said.
Having secured a berth in the regional round of the state tournament, the Bears (20-4) can earn the No. 1 seed with a victory Monday against the Vikings, who defeated Bellarmine Prep, 48-41, in the first semifinal Saturday.
For the third time this week, Olympia’s playoff game came down to the wire. The Bears won all three by a combined nine points.
Olympia had a 10-point lead early in the first quarter. But after Mount Rainier closed the gap, neither team led by more than five points the rest of the way.
From the 1:33 mark of the third quarter and throughout the fourth, there were eight lead changes. Junior Brendan Leonard nailed a 3-pointer on an inbounds play that gave the Bears the lead for good at 57-54 with 2 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the fourth.
The Bears committed just nine turnovers, and other players found ways to contribute besides scoring.
Senior point guard Trevor Houser got all three of his points in the fourth quarter on free throws, but he also took a momentum-changing charge – one of three in the game for Houser – with 30.6 seconds to go that negated a Rams basket that would’ve given them the lead.
Seconds later, Houser was fouled on the inbounds pass, then sank two free throws to give Olympia a 60-57 advantage.
In the final 1:36, Olympia’s 5-of-6 shooting from the free-throw line improved its performance to 9-of-17 accuracy for the game. Houser also had eight assists, and Dominick Francks hauled in eight rebounds to go with his 13 points.
“We find ways to win,” said Leonard, who had a team-best 17 points and seven rebounds. “We always get a different guy stepping up, whether it’s down low or on the outside. We played really smart and had people step up when they need to.”
Caden Rowland paced Mount Rainier with a game-high 20 points. His 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range included five in the first half that helped stake Mount Rainier to a 31-28 halftime lead.
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473 mwochnick@theolympian.com
