Olympus coach Matt Barnes joked that his team and Highland set offensive basketball back several years with their woeful first-half performance in Tuesday’s Region 6 showdown.
The teams shot a combined 22 percent as they scored just eight total points in the first quarter and only 27 for the entire first half.
“For most my guys, they haven’t been in a big game like that. It’s a small gym again, a different atmosphere than we’ve been in and we just kind of turned it over. I mean, they missed shots, but we turned it over a lot. We set basketball back a few years after that first quarter,” said Barnes.
Olympus standout Gavin Lowe made sure that wasn’t the talking point after the game though.
Lowe scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead lay-up with 3.5 seconds remaining, as Olympus went on the road to edge rival Highland 46-45.
“We’ve been in that spot quite a bit. I knew I was going to get the ball. The play’s designed for me to go left … and when I saw that lane open up I just knew I can get there, I can make that bucket, and that’s what I did,” said Lowe, who played the entire second half with a big scratch below his eye after getting poked in the face in the first half.
Both teams came into the rematch of last year’s 5A semifinal feeling very confident with identical 11-1 records, but after the win Olympus has the early leg up in region play.
“We ran a play for Gav and Gav got to the basket and made a great layup like he does and it was a great win for us, but we still have to play them again. It’s a long way, but it’s a great win at this time for us,” said Barnes.
Lowe’s bucket snapped a 9-0 Highland run over a span of 3:49 as the Rams nearly competed an impressive comeback after falling behind 44-36 following a Lowe 3-pointer with 3:52 remaining in the game.
While Lowe was feeling it offensively in the fourth, in the first half he missed his first six shots in a woeful start for the Titans. Olympus turned the ball over on its first three possessions, and seven total times in the first quarter.
Its only bucket came on a Ty Goldsberry layup with 2:55 in the quarter. Highland’s offense wasn’t much better as it only made two buckets and led 6-2 after the first quarter.
“You don’t expect to come out and score two points in the first quarter, but there’s just a lot of mistakes we’ve been making and we just haven’t been the best first half team,” said Lowe.
The second quarter was much of the same for both teams as they combined to miss 14 of their first 16 shots, with Highland only leading 8-6 midway through.
There was a flurry of activity to close the half though, as Olympus scored on four of its last five possession and Highland’s Vai Higby countered by scoring six straight points as the Rams led 14-13 at the break.
The third quarter unfolded completely opposite of the first quarter. Olympus scored on its first seven possessions, while Highland made its first three shots as the visitors raced to a 30-21 lead at the 4:10 mark of the quarter.
A 3-pointer a minute later by Caden Jackson stretched Olympus’ lead to 33-23.
“We’re making some shots and making some plays, and then we get a 10-point lead, and it was like ‘We’re OK, we’re here,’ and then we went back to the same thing of turning it over and taking some bad shots,” said Barnes.
Highland slowly chipped away at the lead, and then back-to-back 3-pointers by Charlie Hodge and Isaiah Drisdom to open the fourth quarter tied the game at 34-34.
Olympus responded with its own 9-2 run — Lowe scored all nine points — to take a 44-36 lead with 3:52 remaining.
Highland’s go-ahead bucket came with 50 seconds remaining as an Olympus player fell down trying to catch a difficult inbound pass near midcourt, with Jack Anderton scooping it up and scoring a fast break layup at the other end.
When Olympus turned the ball over on its ensuing possession, Highland was in a good spot with the 45-44 lead and less than 35 seconds left on the clock.
The Titans, however, regained possession by forcing a five-second call on a Highland inbound pass.
After Lowe’s go-ahead layup, Highland called a timeout and actually got a pretty decent look at a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it bounced harmlessly off the backboard.