Payback, and a championship: Curtis posts double-digit win over Olympia for 4A SPSL title

The Curtis High School Vikings are Class 4A South Puget Sound League tournament champions.

Again.

Saturday night at Tacoma Community College, the Vikings rallied from a deficit that reached as many as 15 points in the opening quarter, and eventually posted a 15-point victory over league rival Olympia, 63-48, to secure back-to-back tournament titles.

The Vikings, who were also the undefeated 4A SPSL North champions this season, collected three consecutive double-digit wins in the tournament this week — against Emerald Ridge, Bellarmine Prep and now the Bears — as they begin their 4A state title defense from last winter.

The victory also has the Vikings back in the win column against their 4A SPSL rival, after Olympia handed them a double-digit loss in the first meeting between the two programs this season — which remains Curtis’ only in-state loss — back in January, snapping a 23-game league winning streak.

“We have some grit,” Curtis guard Zoom Diallo said, recalling the Vikings’ 78-69 loss to the Bears last month in University Place. “After that loss, we were in practice just talking about it. Coach emphasized how they came in our house, and they beat us.

“ … This whole time, we’ve been preparing for Oly. We knew down the road if we did our stuff, and they did their stuff, we were going to see them in the championship. So, we just had to lock in.”

It took Curtis until late in the opening quarter to settle into the contest. The Bears, the 4A SPSL South champions and third-place finishers in 4A last winter in the Tacoma Dome, scored on eight of their first 12 possessions Saturday, beginning the game on a 17-2 run.

The Vikings scored only once during that stretch on a basket from Diallo that broke up Olympia’s 8-0 opening run.

“Early on we were settling for jump shots and long shots, and they were getting everything to the rim in transition, and offensive rebounds,” Vikings coach Tim Kelly said. “So we had to settle down and run stuff and try to get to the basket, which we finally did.”

Curtis rallied with three unanswered baskets to end the quarter, including a 3-pointer by Devin Whitten with 1:13 left that keyed an eventual 11-0 run for the Vikings that stretched into the second.

The Vikings continued to chip away, took their first lead of the game on a baseline layup from Diallo under the hoop with 35 seconds to play in the first half, and entered the break up, 25-23.

“At halftime, we told them, it’s going to be back-and-forth,” Kelly said. “We’re going to have to win possessions at a time on both ends of the floor.”

Curtis built the lead as high as five points twice in the third, but Olympia momentarily regained the lead late in the quarter on a basket from WSU-bound guard Parker Gerrits. Diallo answered on the next trip up the floor, tying the game at 39-39 heading into the final eight minutes.

The Bears took the lead once more on a free throw from Gerrits on the first possession of the fourth quarter, but Curtis led for good following a basket by Josiah Johnson with 5:31 to play. That sparked a 19-4 run by the Vikings to end the game.

Diallo, a five-star recruit with 18 offers from Division I programs, scored a game-high 21 points for the Vikings, including 12 in the final quarter.

“I thought he did a good job there in the second half of controlling the tempo,” Kelly said. “We did start to execute a little better offensively, and he got some chances to get by people and finish.”

Whitten added 13 points and four rebounds for the Vikings, while Johnson had 12 points and five rebounds, and Point Loma-bound guard Tyce Paulsen had 10 points. Guard Cinque Maxwell, who did not play in the first game against the Bears this season, added seven points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals for Curtis.

“He is our glue guy,” Kelly said. “He does everything. He guards. He can make shots. He rebounds. It’s a huge difference.”

Gerrits paced Olympia with 20 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Andreas Engholm had 10 points and eight boards, and Matt Lindblom added eight points.

Both Curtis (21-3) and Olympia (20-4) move on to the 4A West Central/Southwest district tournament, which begins on Feb. 11.