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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

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Bulldogs Claim District Title With Overtime Victory Over O’Dea

Garfield’s Koren Johnson seals the Bulldogs win over O’Dea in the WIAA District 2 championship game with a dunk in overtime. Garfield remained undefeated with a 57-49 overtime win over the Fighting Irish. Staff Photo/John Saunders.

By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium

The O’Dea Fighting Irish found themselves on the elimination side of this year’s postseason brackets, and successfully battled their way out of the losers’ bracket to give them an opportunity to play for district championship. However, waiting for them were the undefeated Garfield Bulldogs (20-0), who beat Rainier Beach 76-57 to advance to the championship game.

Despite beating O’Dea 98-61 at home earlier in the year, Garfield had their work cut out for them as the Fighting Irish looked to avenge the 37-point loss and become district champions.

Both teams struggled to find their rhythm offensively in the first quarter as the referees allowed the teams to play very physical, and both teams forced difficult shots and turnovers with their defensive pressure. With defense ultimately dictating the game early on, Garfield held a 9-8 lead heading into the second quarter.

After scoring the first four points of the second quarter, Garfield’s offense went cold which opened the door for O’Dea to go on a run. Owen Moriarty started the run with a three-pointer and a mid-range jump shot. Takeo Staten-Sylvester made two free throws, which was followed by a two-hand dunk by Russell MacFarlane as the Fighting Irish went on a 9-0 run forcing the Bulldogs to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the Bulldog’s continued to struggle offensively and O’Dea thrived off their struggles and went into halftime with a 25-19 lead.

With all of the momentum swaying in their favor, the Fighting Irish opened the second half with MacFarlane hitting a rainbow three and Miles Clark followed suit making a difficult shot in the post. Even with scoring a quick five points to open the quarter, Garfield’s defense allowed O’Dea to only score 10 points in the third and offensively the Bulldogs had flipped the switch and were instantly in sync.

A layup by Sherrell McCullum, a three-point play by Tremaine Guidry, and layup in transition over a taller defender by Koren Johnson ignited the Bulldogs’ third quarter rally. Instead of settling for difficult shots, the Bulldogs were aggressively going to the basket, and playing their brand of basketball. Within the first four minutes of the second half Garfield had regained the lead.

“Coach told us to lock-in on defense,” said McCullum about Garfield’s third quarter performance. “That’s how we win games, and that’s how we’ve won every game we were down.”

Despite Garfield’s consistent scoring in the third quarter, O’Dea still remained within striking distance as neither team was able to completely pull away from the other. The game was so close that one turnover, shot or bad call by an official could potentially determine the outcome.

Garfield led by one point heading into the fourth quarter, but O’Dea looked unphased as they had already come from behind to win many games this season.

Both teams struggled offensively as their defenses made things tough for each other in their half court sets. The stagnant offenses came to an end when Guidry hit a running floater for Garfield. The Bulldogs followed up with a steal by Justice, who passed the ball the length of the court to Johnson for a layup. With that, the Bulldogs’ one-point lead increased to five within 31 seconds.

Garfield appeared to put the game out of reach, as Jaylin Stewart hit two free throws to give the Bulldogs a 46-41 lead with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter. However, O’Dea would shock the gym and send the game into overtime.

With 18 seconds left in the game, Moriarty got fouled and made both free throws to cut Garfield’s lead to three points. Instead of running the clock out, Garfield decided to attempt a layup which rimmed out. O’Dea’s Staten-Sylvester received the outlet pass off the miss and pushed the ball up the court and found Williams for a three-pointer to tie the game and send it into overtime.

      Tied at 46 with four minutes left on the clock in overtime, Garfield’s defense secured their win by allowing just three points in the extra quarter. The full court, on-ball pressure by Guidry, Justice, and Johnson made it difficult for O’Dea to score points, which resulted in missed shots and long rebounds giving Garfield opportunities for easy points.            

Scoring in each of their possessions in overtime, Garfield sealed the game when Johnson jumped the passing lane and finished with a two-handed dunk. As the final buzzer sounded off Garfield won 57-49 improving their record to 21-0 and being crowned 2021-22 SeaKing District Champions.

Pictorial Highlights of O’Dea vs Garfield