Boys Hoops: Curtis denies Olympia comeback holds on for big win!

1/21/2022

Curtis 51, Olympia 44

(University Place, WA) A 17 point lead whittled down to just 1 but the Curtis Vikings never allowed the Olympia Bears to get over the top of that hill and won a big cross divisional match-up between the 2 division leaders in the SPSL 4A boys basketball league.

The 2 teams struggled in the 1st quarter and with just 15 seconds left to play Curtis led 7-6 and would give up the lead when Andreas Engholm put back a missed shot for 2 giving the Bears a, 8-7 lead with just 6 seconds to play. Tyce Paulsen raced down the floor and kicked-it over to Cinque Maxwell who then nailed the 3 point shot at the buzzer giving the lead back to the Vikings up 10-8. (Video below)

The shot seemed to have kick-started the Vikings offense who came back in the 2nd quarter with 17 led by Zoom Diallo’s 13 point 1st half points. The Vikings defense continued to lock down on the Bears and they led at one point by 17. Olympia would hit some shots at the end of the quarter and went into the break trailing by 12.

The Bears kept that momentum rolling into the 3rd as guard Parker Gerrits began to heat up hitting shots from the outside and scored 14 of his 21 in the 2nd half. After the 3rd Olympia trailed by 7.

Olympia kept coming in the 4th and got it down to just a 2 point game when Gerrits drained a 3 with about 4 minutes to go in the game. Diallo countered with a pair of free throws to push the score to 45-41 but Gerrits struck again from behind the arc and suddenly with 2:20 left to play it was a 1 point affair, 45-44. (Video below)

After another pair of free throws from Diallo the Vikings got a big stop and then Diallo went to work again drawing a crowd and slipped a nifty pass to Maxwell who hit the shot icing the game 49-45 with just a few seconds to play. (Video below)

The Vikings improved to 12-3 on the season and remains 4-0 in divisional play. Olympia is 5-1 in divisional play and drops to 13-3 on the year. Our home team MVP award went to Zoom Diallo and our visiting team MVP was Parker Gerrits.

Scoring
Curtis: Zoom Diallo 21, Cinque Maxwell 16, Devin Whitten 10, Tyce Paulsen 9, Trent Williams 5

Olympia: Parker Gerrits 21, Andreas Engholm 12, Mason Juergens 5, Parker Fouts 4, Drew Carlson 2

Interview with Zoom Diallo on the big win