Tumwater girls join Olympia and Black Hills boys in hoisting state basketball trophies

Eight Olympia-area high school basketball teams played in state tournaments in four classifications and two Domes over the weekend.

Tumwater’s girls placed the highest, finishing third in 2A, while Olympia, in 4A, and Black Hills, in 2A, snagged fourth place trophies on the boys’ side.

4A BOYS: OLYMPIA SOLVES SUMNER ZONE AFTER SCORCHING SKYVIEW

Sumner had Olympia’s number this season, beating the Bears in each of two 4A South Puget Sound League games. But in the third meeting — this time in the fourth/sixth place Class 4A state tournament game at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday morning — the Bears came out on top, 59-48.

“I think we just finally kind of figured it out,” said Olympia’s Jackson Grant, who scored a game-high 22 points. “We figured out that we had to shut down (Josh) Lear and we finally did that.”

Sumner’s 1-2-2 zone has consistently given teams problems this season, and was good enough to catapult the Spartans, who finished third in the 4A SPSL, into state. It took until the third meeting for Olympia (23-7) to attack it effectively.

“Their zone is just kind of weird, it’s called ‘the buzz’ or some weird zone that nobody even plays,” Grant said. “It’s just kind of hard to figure out the first couple times you play it. So, we finally figured it out and everything just clicked at the right time.”

To Olympia coach John Kiley, beating a zone mostly comes down to shooting.

Olympia, which set the state tournament record a day prior, shooting 70.2 percent from the field in its win against Skyview, continued its hot shooting against Sumner. The Bears shot 51.2 percent (22-43) from the field against the Spartans and held Sumner to 42.2 percent (19-45) shooting.

“We shot it a little better,” Kiley said. “The zone that they play — like Union showed a few weeks ago — you have to make shots. So, I feel like Jackson warming up there in the third and fourth quarter really helped us loosen that up. The more we miss shots, the more they pack that thing in.”

Kai Johnson added 17 points for Olympia. Lamar Campbell led Sumner with 17 points and Lear added nine.

Olympia’s fourth-place finish is the program’s best since 2011. The Bears also took fourth that year.

“Obviously, it wasn’t our overall goal at winning state, but to come back and not lose two games back-to-back and end on a win — there’s only three teams in the state that get to end their season on a win, and it’s the highest finish we’ve had in a long time,” Grant said. “It felt really good to send the seniors off this way.”

3A GIRLS: BIG STAGE SOURS CAPITAL’S SHOOTING IN LOSS TO SHORECREST

Shooting in the Tacoma Dome, especially on the first day of the state tournament, has been known to be a crapshoot. Some teams aren’t affected by the lack of backdrop behind the hoops, while others struggle mightily to get shots to fall.

The Capital girls struggled mightily and were blown out by No. 5 Shorecrest in a loser-out game on Wednesday night.

The 12th-ranked Cougars (19-7) shot just 11-for-45 (24.4 percent) and 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) from 3-point range in the 51-34 season-ending loss. All three of the Cougars’ makes from beyond the 3-point arc came in the final quarter after the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt.

“The Dome is weird, so it was partly that,” Shorecrest senior guard Amanda Lee said of the Cougars shooting woes. “But also, we’ve prided ourselves on good defense and holding teams to less points than they usually score in an average game. I think we did the same thing in this game.”

Nicole Lindblom led Capital with 14 points while Raegan Henry added nine and Kyra Ashton six.

2A GIRLS: T-BIRDS CLAIM FIRST TROPHY SINCE ’11, WFW AND BLACK HILLS OUT EARLY

One of the hardest things to do in sports is to live up to expectations.

When five talented ninth-graders arrived in the Tumwater High School girls’ basketball program together last season, the hype, locally, was on a par to when the Fab Five freshman joined Michigan’s men’s program in the 1990s.

The Thunderbirds were expected to do everything and do it immediately. Instead, they were knocked out of postseason short of the state tournament in 2019.

This season was different, with Tumwater winning the 2A Evergreen Conference and reaching state with a 3-1 trip through the District 4 tournament. With a nine-point second half lead in Friday evening’s semi-final against West Valley of Spokane, it looked like the third-seeded T-Birds were about to play for a state championship.

Instead, the Eagles–who previously had eliminated two other EvCo teams, Black Hills and W.F. West from title consideration–rallied to win on a three-pointer by Hailey Marlow at the buzzer, devastating each of the nine T-Bird players.

“We’re a team that likes to win, it wouldn’t have mattered if that had been a summer league game,” said third-year Tumwater coach Robin Johnson. “Since they were little, they’ve always wanted to get first place.”

They sat down to dinner deep in gloom, but after a short talk from their coaches and athletic director Tim Graham, turned their thoughts to winning Saturday morning’s third or fifth place game against Burlington-Edison at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

“I told them I’d be disappointed if they weren’t upset and emotional, but that I’d also be disappointed if they didn’t come back and fight today,” Johnson said. “Our loss wouldn’t define us. How we responded today would define us.”

Tumwater (25-3) wanted the shiniest trophy, but they also wanted to help the lone player remaining from before Johnson became coach in 2017-18, senior Olivia Bailon, win her final game in a T-Bird uniform.

Mission accomplished.

Though both teams were playing their third game in as many days, Tumwater looked much fresher and pulled away from No. 5 Burlington-Edison (21-6) as halftime approached, going on to a 62-48 victory.

“A trophy’s a trophy and we wanted to end our season on a win for Liv,” Johnson said.”

Aubrey Amendala, who scored 19, and Natalie Sumrok, who finished with 18 and a first team all-tournament selection, faced strong teams with accurate scouting reports on them for one of the first times, but found routes to the basket. Five other players scored at least four points, with Kaari Little and Lily McCauley coming off the bench to tally six timely points each.

Amendala was second team all-tournament.

Bailon, who will run both cross country and track & field at Oregon State next year, was tearful looking back at her T-Bird basketball career.

“It’s crazy, I feel like it’s gone by way too fast,” she said. “I love these girls. I’m so blessed to have played with them. It’s been an awesome experience.”

Interestingly, Johnson was the coach at Black Hills the last time Tumwater earned a state trophy, claiming fourth in 2011 with a 57-45 win over Lynden, behind post Mackenzie Cooper and college-bound guards Tayler Weiks (Idaho/Central Missouri) and Jordyn Richardson (St. Martin’s).

No. 7 W.F. West (18-8), the 2018 champions, watched a 12-point second half lead over West Valley disappear, then lost its quarterfinal on a buzzer-beater by the Eagles’ Jillian Taylor, 44-43. They were knocked out of trophy contention Friday by East Valley, 52-41.

Senior Annika Waring led the Bearcats in scoring both days, with 10 points in each game.

Black Hills (19-6), forced into a play-in game by virtue of their No. 9 seeding, was behind 30-8 at the half against West Valley and never recovered in a 67-36 elimination loss on Wednesday. Senior guard Megan River went out on a high note, scoring 20 points and snagging three steals.

2A BOYS: BLACK HILLS’ FIRST STATE TROPHY IS FOR FOURTH

Four games in as many days isn’t an easy task for a basketball team. Make the opposition the best a team’s level has to offer and the task is more difficult.

The Black Hills High School boys weathered cramped hotel rooms and hours of school bus travel to win three of those four games and claim fourth place with a 63-58 victory over Toppenish, located just 21 miles away from the SunDome, on Saturday morning.

It marked the first time the Wolves had placed at the state boys tournament.

“We had a lot of obstacles to overcome, sharing a bed with a teammate, one bus to transport 30 people. We’re all friends and family, so it’s not a big deal, but it is something we had to overcome,” said Wolves senior guard Zach Crumley.

A theme of the Wolves’ season had been to claim one of the top eight spots in state tournament seeding to avoid a difficult regional round game and the extra night of play at the Dome. They got the ninth seed, but fortunately saw their regional game set for Tumwater’s gym, where they defeated Woodland.

Opening play in Yakima on Wednesday, the Wolves (22-7) edged Mountlake Terrace, 52-50, but lost their quarterfinal matchup to Clarkston. An overtime win over rival Tumwater to even that season series at 2-2 earned Black Hills a shot at a trophy.

They grabbed the bigger one available in the four or six placing game.

“It feels amazing,” said Black Hills coach Jeff Gallagher. “I’ve known our nine seniors since they were in fourth grade.”

Crumley, who nailed a couple of threes at key moments and had three assists, agreed but still felt the weight of missed opportunity.

“It’s great. It’s little underwhelming because we had higher expectations coming in,” he said. “But, fourth place ain’t bad. This is a brotherhood. We’ve been playing on the same (AAU) teams for 10 years, dreaming about this in hotel rooms in other states.”

Senior guard Avery Armin played about as well offensively as he can, scoring 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting and dishing off three assists to figure in most of the Wolves’ points and earn a second team all-tournament selection. Junior post Justin Hicks, who had a dominant night against Tumwater turned in a quieter outing against the Wildcats, but finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Hicks was also second team all-tournament.

Weston Ainsworth also reached double figures for Black Hills with 12 points.

Tumwater’s 65-57 overtime loss to the Wolves on Friday stung not only because the T-Birds fell to an archrival, but because it was their second near-miss after losing 57-54 to Lindbergh in the quarterfinals.

Ethan Dillon was a star for No. 6 Tumwater (20-6) over the course of the two games. He led with 16 points and four assists against Lindbergh, then had 21 points and three assists against the Wolves.

Junior point guard Cam Oram gives the T-Birds some one to build around next season, after they lose six seniors, including their top two scorers, Damon Gaither and Peyton Peterson, to graduation. Oram helped Tumwater hang around against Black Hills with 13 points, including three long 3-point baskets.

1A GIRLS: ELMA HAS NO ANSWER FOR FREEMAN

Six-foot-two senior post Jalyn Sackrider scored 11 points but no other Eagle scored more than twice as No. 12 Elma (17-7) fell to No. 4 Freeman, 49-25, on Wednesday.

Elma led by a pair, 13-11, early in the second quarter but the Scotties outscored the Eagles, 38-12, the rest of the way. Elma made just 9 of 51 shots from the field, only one in 11 tries from three-point range.

This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 11:43 AM.