NAPAVINE — Napavine ripped off a 28-4 run in the third quarter and ran away with an 87-57 non-league win over visiting Mabton in front of a rockin’ crowd filled with a large number of both Tiger and Viking fans on Tuesday afternoon.
Napavine senior post Keith Olson shot a school-record 15 of 15 from the field, erupting for the first 12 points of the second half and finishing with a game-high 31. He also finished with seven boards.
It was a frantic first-half as Mabton tried to play as fast as they could, and succeeded for the most part, but the Tigers kept pace and held a one-point advantage after one quarter and a 38-31 lead at the half.
“(Mabton) wants to play really fast and get it kind of scattered,” Napavine coach Rex Stanley said. “And once we settled down in the third quarter and talked about what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it, you know, Keith ended up 15 for 15.”
The Tigers’ second-half game plan to feed Olson in the post worked brilliantly as the 6-foot-6 big man scored 12-straight points to start the second half and give Napavine a 50-31 lead midway through the third quarter.
But Olson wasn’t the only threat offensively. Sophomore James Grose scored 15 in the first half and finished with 28 points, which included two 3-pointers. He added four steals and six rebounds.
“We knew they were small and we knew what they wanted to do and Keith was going to have a big night,” Grose said. “I saw a lot of driving lanes because they were focusing on Keith. So when he wasn’t open, I tried to make someone open and it just worked out for everybody.”
The Tigers shot a scorching 61% from the field (36 for 59), including 67% in the second half (20 for 30).
Jarin Prather added eight points, seven rebounds and four assists, while point guard Cael Stanley stuffed the stat sheet with six points, a game-high 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals.
“Grose was able to do his thing and we had some other guys find their offensive rhythm,” Rex Stanley said.
Napavine held Mabton to 35% shooting from the field (21 for 60). The Vikings were led offensively by Victor Chavez’ team-high 17 points, while Andrew McCallum added 15.
Napavine (3-1, 1-0 C2BL) travels to Centralia for a 7 p.m. matchup on Dec. 29.
