OLYMPIA — Nearly one year ago to the day, the Olympia Bears suffered their worst defeat of the season at the most inopportune time.
The Bears slipped up against Camas in the District 3 4A Tournament quarterfinals 63-17 on Feb. 17, 2025, marking their lowest scoring total in a game in over six years.
With an opportunity to get revenge on the Papermakers in the opening round of the district tournament in Olympia Thursday night, the Bears once again couldn’t keep up with Camas and lost 66-54, sending Oly down to the consolation bracket to try to take the long road to state.
This time, however, the Bears hung around with Camas for the majority of the game, but 30 points from junior guard Lauren Hood, including 20 in the first half, were too much for Olympia to recover from.
Camas, the 12th seed in the bracket, came into the tournament with an 8-12 record, but Olympia knew the Papermakers were dangerous and much better than their win-loss record showed.
“We knew coming in that we play a certain style and at a certain pace, and if we couldn’t slow the game down, that would allow them to get in transition on us,” Olympia head coach Dustin Workman said. “They have so many shooters, which makes it really hard for us.”
The Papermakers gashed Olympia immediately with its shooting prowess, as Baylie Farra and Eliana Gibson drained 3-pointers early as Camas took a 10-3 lead. Olympia rebounded with seven unanswered to tie the game, fueled by Sawyer Schaff and Junie Hanson.
But the Papermakers raced to the end of the opening quarter with a 12-2 spurt to push ahead by 10 heading to the second quarter.
During the timeout between the first two quarters, the Bears must have lit a fire under themselves as Brooke Juergens and Schaff quickly nailed a pair of 3-pointers to pull within four. Once again, Camas swiped the momentum right back with a 15-4 blitz, as Farra and Hood did the majority of the damage. Camas led 42-27 at halftime.
“I just felt like we were pushing the issue a little bit when we really didn’t need to,” Workman said.
Olympia’s golden opportunity to strike came in the third quarter. Its defense kept Camas without a field goal for the first six minutes and 40 seconds of the frame, but the Bears had only scored four points themselves in that span. The Bears outscored the Papermakers 9-5 in the third, but the margin was still 11, yet Olympia felt it was a few plays away from getting back into the game.
Ultimately, the Bears remained a few plays away throughout the fourth quarter. Camas opened up a 17-point lead midway through the final frame, and while Olympia pulled to within nine multiple times, the Papermakers iced out the Bears at the free-throw line, knocking down 7 of their 8 attempts in the waning moments to put the game away.
“We held them scoreless for the first six minutes of the third quarter, but the problem was we just didn’t convert. We had shots and we had chances to go on a run in those six minutes, and we just didn’t,” Workman said. “In the fourth quarter, in my head, it felt like we were gaining ground, but every time that we did, they got in transition and got a corner 3 and broke our back again.”
Schaff, a day after being named Co-MVP of the South Puget Sound League South division, finished with a team-high 24 points. Hanson added 14, Juergens scored seven, and Hannah Kim added five. Gracie McCaughan rounded out Oly’s scoring with four.
If Olympia wants to earn its first trip to the state tournament in three years, the Bears will have to win three straight in the consolation bracket, starting with South Puget Sound League rival Emerald Ridge at home Saturday. The Bears defeated the Jaguars 56-45 in their lone meeting this season in Olympia back on Jan. 6.
“We’ve got to go get that one against Emerald Ridge on Saturday. It’s somebody that we’ve already played in our league, so we should feel some confidence and comfortability,” Workman said. “We’ve just gotta grind it out one game at a time.”
