Why Olympic College's men's basketball can win the NWAC championship

Olympic College men's basketball coach Ryley Callaghan spent the past weekend like many of us, glued to the television for March Madness, watching some of the best D-I programs in the nation fight for spots in the Sweet 16.

Some, like No. 1 seeds Gonzaga and Arizona, survived round of 32 dogfights. Others, like defending champion and No. 1 seed Baylor, kissed their seasons goodbye.

This coming weekend, it's OC's turn to seek postseason tournament glory as the No. 1 seed from the NWAC North Region. The Rangers (21-7) face East Region No. 3 Yakima Valley (19-9) in the semifinal round of the Northwest Athletic Conference Championships at Everett Community College at 3 p.m. East Region No. 1 Wenatchee Valley (18-13) and North Region No. 3 Bellevue (21-7) play in the other semifinal. The title game is Sunday at 2 p.m.

Much like the NCAA tournament, there's no consolation bracket for losing teams in the NWAC. There used to be placing games to determine third and fourth places. The last time OC qualified for the semifinal round — in 2000 under current OC athletic director Barry Janusch — the Rangers dropped games against Wenatchee Valley and Southwestern Oregon.

The NWAC tournament eliminated placing games in 2017, so Saturday's mission is clear for the Rangers.

"You are done if you lose," said Callaghan, who help guide Peninsula College to a third-place finish at the NWAC tournament in 2015 as a player.

Here are three reasons why OC could be celebrating a championship on Sunday:

Half the work is done

Winning the NWAC tournament title isn't like, say, winning a high school basketball state championship in Washington, which requires teams to win either three or four consecutive games in as many days. That's how North Kitsap's boys won a state title in 2020 — four straight victories in four days.

After beating Clackamas 96-84 in the first round March 17 and Tacoma 74-59 in the quarterfinal round March 18, OC is getting in a full week of practice (and some rest) prior to tipping off Saturday. Now, the Rangers need to go 2-0 to be champions.

Against Clackamas, which beat OC by 12 points during the regular season, the Rangers fell behind 14-6 after eight minutes before turning things around. OC led by as many as 16 points in the second half and had four players score in double-figures, led by North Region regular season player of the year Aundree Polk with 29.

"We started off real shaky. You could tell guys were nervous," said Callaghan, who earned North Region coach of the year honors. "We made a couple changes and got a couple sparks and ended up leading by nine at halftime."

Against Tacoma, the Rangers raced out to a 25-6 lead and never looked back. Polk scored a game-high 20 points.

"We were hitting on all cylinders," Callaghan said. "We were making the extra pass. We locked into the defensive game plan."

Late-game situations

How did OC fare against the other three semifinalists during the regular season?

Well, the Rangers didn't play Yakima Valley this season, but did beat Wenatchee Valley 97-86 on Dec. 18 and went 1-1 against Bellevue during the regular season, winning 93-85 on Feb. 5 and losing 76-73 on March 2.

Callaghan said in that loss to Bellevue, the Rangers were up four points with 22 seconds to play. Here's how the rest of the game went: Bellevue hit a 3-pointer, OC missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 and committed a foul on the rebound attempt, Bellevue made both ensuing free throws, OC missed a layup, Bellevue made another two free throws to secure the victory.

"It was a bad way to end that game," Callaghan said.

During the full scope of the regular season, OC found ways to win most of its close contests, winning seven games decided by four points or less. It did lose games overtime games against Shoreline and Skagit Valley.

"We have been in these dogfights all year," Callaghan said. "That's what kind of gives me confidence that, 'Hey man, in a close game, we are going to know what we do. We practice it everyday at practice. We do situational-type drills. We make it so guys, in that situation, are the most comfortable they can be."

Remaining field is fairly even

The NWAC hasn't crowned a men's basketball champion in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 2018 and 2019 champion North Idaho College vacated titles due to conference code violations.

So what better way for the NWAC to get back to determining titles on the hardwood than having OC crowned champion? The Rangers won seven Washington State Junior College Athletic Conference titles from 1947-64, the final six under coach Phil Pesco, but haven't reached the NWAC title game during the modern era of Northwest CC basketball.

The other three semifinalists this weekend have claimed at least one NWAC title within the past three decades: Yakima Valley (1976, 2003, 2008), Wenatchee Valley (1980, 1996) and Bellevue (1993).

A peek into statistics shows that all of the four semifinal teams rank in the Top 10 in points per game. Wenatchee Valley leads the way at 93.6 PPG (1st in NWAC), followed by Yakima Valley at 85.4 PPGA (5th), Bellevue at 84.7 (8th) and OC at 84.2 (tied for 10th). All four teams also rank in the Top 20 for points against per game.

Individually for OC, Polk (22.2 PPG), Wayne Jamison (15.8) and Tyler Behrend (14.4) rank sixth, 28th and 44th in the NWAC in scoring.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Why Olympic College can win the NWAC championship