1/27/16

Olympia 51, Gig Harbor 40

(Olympia, WA) The Narrows League 4A division has turned into a 3-team race and a 4-team race for post-season. The top 3 coming in were Bellarmine Prep at 8-0, Olympia 7-1 and Timberline 7-2. These 3 teams have clinched the top 3 positions and now are fighting for the 1-2-3 seeds into the District Tournament. The other 4 included Yelm at 3-6, South Kitsap at 2-6, Gig Harbor at 2-7 and Stadium in the basement at 1-8. All 4 teams are still alive to fight it out for the 4th and 5th seeds into Districts.

So coming into this game both teams had plenty of incentive to win this game. The Bears seemingly controlled this game from the start but every time you looked up at the scoreboard the Tides were still within striking distance. Olympia opened up on a 7-0 run before Gig Harbor got on the board it was then 9-3 but with just 5 seconds to go in the quarter the Tides had pulled within 4 trailing 13-9 and they had the ball but a silly turn-over gave the ball back to Olympia without the clock ticking and the Bears’ Zaiden Hernandez then dropped a long 3 at the buzzer to give Olympia a 16-9 lead after 1.

The 2nd quarter would be a back and forth with the Tides again pulling close only to let Olympia pull away toward the end of the quarter for an 8 point lead at the break. Olympia should have had a much larger lead as they dominated the boards and at times would have 4 and 5 chances at scoring. David Woodward would lead the Bears at the half with 8 while Liam Murphy added 5. Sam Gagliardi would pace the Tides with 7 with Avery Jones popping in 5.

In the 3rd quarter the Bears would take their 1st double digit lead but it wouldn’t last as Gig Harbor again would fight back and pull within 4 trailing 29-25. Once again the Bears would push back and maintain the 8 point advantage at the end of the 3rd 33-25.

The 4th quarter would see a completely different game especially from the Tides. They would struggle to get on the board and would not score until nearly halfway through and fell behind by 14. But then the Tides hit a bucket and turned up the heat defensively with a press defense. Meantime, the Bears decided to start running the clock on possession and seemingly fell into a prevent defense like you would see in football when you have a good sized lead. The Bears struggled with the press defense and the Tides came roaring back to pull within 6 at the 1:11 mark.

The key string of events then played out to secure the win for Olympia when the Tides Gagliardi who finished with 22 points tried to put the team on his back and fired up 2 3-point shots that both missed but he followed his shot on the 2nd one but missed a lay-up that would have cut the lead to 4. The Tides had to foul and the Bears put the game away from the foul line.

With the win the Bears improved to 8-1 and will have a shot at redemption on Friday night when they host undefeated Bellarmine Prep. The Lions improved to 9-0 with a 76-53 win over Timberline and with the loss the Blazers dropped to 7-3. Gig Harbor is now 2-8 while the two teams ahead of them South Kitsap and Yelm hold on to the final 2 post season slots, the Wolves helped themselves beating Yelm tonight to get to 3-6 while Yelm dropped to 3-7.

Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game were David Woodward for Olympia and Sam Gagliardi for the Tides. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game went to Olympia’s Liam Murphy with a nifty spin reverse lay-up off a missed shot.

Scoring:

Olympia: Woodward 12, Sipe 10, Thompson 8, Murphy 7, Beusch 5, Hernandez 3, Efflund 2, Shafer 2, Young 2

Gig Harbor: Gagliardi 22, Lovrak 7, Jones 5, Condon 2, Oman 2, Green 2

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