KIRKLAND — If this were last year, the Monroe boys basketball team would be preparing for another state tournament game. Instead, the Bearcats saw one of the best seasons in the program’s history come to a disappointing end with a 54-51 defeat at the hands of Olympia in a first-round Class 4A state regional game Friday at Juanita High School.
Monroe (17-7) was playing its first state game since 1994. And while Bearcats coach Nick Wold was proud of the season his team put together, he was disappointed that it didn’t last at least one more game.
“I hope the coaches in the state advocate for a change in the state tournament,” Wold said. “We would have liked to have two games. It’s a travesty that if we’re supposed to be advocating for what’s right for the kids that we’ve turned it into a money issue.”
This is the first season that the state tournament has been modified so that some teams play loser-out games at regional sites in the first round. In the past, every team that qualified for the state tournament advanced to a double-elimination format.
Olympia (22-3), the Narrows League champion playing its first state game since 1999, advances to play a loser-out game today against Kentwood at Juanita.
Monroe seemed on its way to a win early in the third quarter, when it used a 9-0 run to go up 33-22. But things started to go downhill with two minutes to go in the quarter when Bearcats standout center Cole Parker picked up his third foul and went to the bench. To that point, Parker had 23 of his team’s 39 points. But with the 6-foot-7 senior out of the game, Olympia finished the quarter with an 8-3 spurt to get within three.
Joey Roppo opened the fourth with a 3-pointer for the Bearcats but Parker went back to the bench with his fourth foul and the Bears quickly closed to within one with six-straight points. Parker came back in but by then the momentum had shifted.
“Obviously having Cole out of the game hurt because they just didn’t have an answer for him,” Wold said.
Parker spent most of the game defending Bears star Alex Weber-Brader, the two-time Narrows MVP who scored 22 points and became the school’s career scoring leader during the game. Parker did a solid job but it was a tough matchup as Weber-Brader is a 6-5 physical guard rather than a post player.
“I tried what I could but he just went off,” Parker said.
A Weber-Brader 3-pointer tied the game at 47 with 4:33 to play, the first time Monroe didn’t hold the lead since the end of the first quarter. Olympia then took the lead at 51-49 on back-to-back buckets by Jamey Smith and Monroe was held without a field goal for the final 3:51. The Bearcats had two shots in the paint in the final 17 seconds that could have given them the lead but missed both.
“We kept going at them but we had some mental lapses and let them come back,” said Parker, who finished with 25 points. “They made shots but we did it to ourselves.”
Roppo scored 12 points but only one other player scored more than three for Monroe. Dominick Franks scored 13 points and Smith scored 10 for Olympia.
“Our inability to make consistent defensive stops was the nail in our coffin,” Wold said. “But I’m really proud of our seniors. It just would have been nice for them to get another game.”
Despite the loss, the Monroe seniors said there’s no question this was a successful season.
“It was a huge improvement from last year,” Parker said. “I’ve never had so much fun playing before.”
“To be able to finally get to state our last year, we enjoyed every minute of it,” Roppo said. “It was a great experience.”
At Juanita H.S.
Olympia 12 10 17 15 — 54
Monroe 11 13 18 9 — 51
Olympia—Raschkow 7, Smith 10, Steen 2, Houser 0, Slater 0, Franks 13, Weber-Brader 22, Wittenberg 0. Monroe—Roppo 12, Bunge 2, Turner 2, Drivstuen 0, Ulanovskiy 3, Reilly 0, Peloquin 0, Meeus 7, Parker 25. 3-point goals—Franks 1, Weber-Brader 1, Parker 1, Roppo 3. Records—Olympia 22-3 overall. Monroe 17-7.
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