The game for 3rd place in the Washington Boys’ Basketball State title race was a hard fought game between Mt. Spokane and O’Dea. Mt. Spokane had just been nudged out of the title race by the Crusaders 55-53, while O’Dea had suffered arguably a tougher loss to Rainier Beach 46-59. Mt Spokane was able to win and send nine of their seniors off with a 3rd place trophy, as they just managed to defeat the Irish 66-62. Although this wasn’t exactly what they had hoped for going into the tournament, at least they would still be able to walk away from the tournament with a trophy.
The game was a tight one, but going into the fourth quarter, it was looking better for Mt. Spokane, as they had a 60-54 lead. Unsurprisingly, O’Dea was not going out without a fight, and went on a 8-0 streak to take the lead 62-60 with 2 minutes to go. Mt. Spokane wasn’t going to allow that to continue and, in the last 2 minutes, went on a 6-0 scoring streak of their own to win the game 66-62.
The last time these two teams met, it was under very different circumstances. It was one of the 2023 State semifinal games, and whoever won would be sent to the finals and get a chance at glory. On this fateful day, O’Dea was actually the team to emerge victorious, as they won 57-52. This year though, Mt. Spokane came out guns blazing and was able to beat the team that knocked them out of the running last year. Not to mention that this was also a repeat of the state championship game in 2019 where O’Dea smashed the Wildcats 70-39.
The Wildcats will now go into next season on a high note, now that they’ve taken revenge on O’Dea and finished 3rd in state. The future games between these two teams are certainty ones to watch as the Wildcats fight to keep their newfound winning tradition against O’Dea alive.
