AUBURN — Win the fourth quarter, win the game.
The O’Dea High School boys basketball team trailed for most of Saturday’s state tournament regional game against defending Class 3A champion Auburn. But they came through when it mattered most.
After a basket from fourth-seeded Auburn guard Tyrell Nichols put the Trojans up three with 5:47 left in the game, the No. 5 Fighting Irish reeled off an 11-0 run to take a commanding eight-point lead in an eventual 63-61 comeback victory.
With the win, O’Dea gets a first-round bye at next week’s state tournament, and a spot in the state quarterfinals. To clinch that bye on the road, against the defending state champion, was particularly satisfying.
“It’s big for us,” senior Amare Jackson said. “Especially (since) they’re not in our division, it’s a big win, to show and prove to people that we can beat teams like this.”
Jackson finished the game with 14 points, second on the team behind senior Miles Clark, who finished the night with 21.
Auburn led by four points after one quarter, but O’Dea battled back in the second to tie things up 28-28 at the half.
Jaylen Petty had 12 first half points for the Trojans, while Luvens Valcin had 11, as the two combined for 23 of Auburn’s 28 first-half points. Petty put up 10 more points in the third quarter, and the Trojans went into the final frame with a four-point lead, at 46-42.
The teams traded buckets for the first several minutes of the fourth, but once senior Mason Williams sank a pair of free throws to pull the Irish within one point, at 51-50, it became the O’Dea Show until the final whistle blew.
The Irish took the lead for good when junior Malcolm Clark sank a shot to make it 52-51 with 3:58 to go in the game. The Trojans managed to pull back within three points after Jaylen Petty sank three free throws with 5.2 seconds remaining, but Noel Davis made a pair of his own in response to seal the O’Dea victory.
“I’m proud of all of our guys,” O’Dea coach Jason Kerr said. “We had to go 11 deep today, and had to battle through a lot of adversity and foul trouble. I think our three bigs, the Clark brothers (Miles and Malcolm) and (Jackson), … they made the difference on both ends of the floor in terms of shutting down their offensive rebounding, because Auburn is so good at getting it off the glass, and then obviously scoring with the basketball at the other end.”
Petty finished the game with 31 points for Auburn, while Lukens Valcin barreled his way to 14 points on the night in front of a spirited Auburn home crowd.
“A defending (champion), no matter who it is, is definitely a tough battle,” Williams said. “They have a great coach, and they run a good offense, and it was challenging for sure. They’re a great team, I’m just glad we could pull it out.”
With the loss to O’Dea, Auburn will play Wednesday against No. 12 seed Arlington, while the Irish will play Thursday against either No. 14 North Thurston or No. 8 Mountlake Terrace.
O’Dea is no stranger to the big stage, winning its most recent state championship in 2019, and finishing runner-up to Garfield in 2020. But as Kerr makes clear, past victories don’t matter at all.
Even with a first-round bye, O’Dea still has a long, difficult road ahead before they can raise a championship trophy. Saturday’s win was only the first step.
“There is no such thing as a break at the state tournament,” Kerr said. “That’s why it’s so difficult to be able to get to Saturday night, especially in this classification. So we just take it one game at a time. We got tonight done, and then we deal with the next game we’ve got to play. That has kind of been our focus all along.”