For Bothell High boys’ basketball head coach Ron Bollinger, watching his team celebrate on the court after last Friday’s 63-54 winner-to-state victory over No. 6 Olympia was a source of vindication.
The Cougars, as they had done many times already this season, rallied from an early deficit to win and earn the program’s first berth in 15 years into the Hardwood Classic, the 4A state basketball tournament, this weekend at the Tacoma Dome.
The last time the Cougars made the big dance, the team’s current players were infants, and Bollinger had just began his long tenure as coach.
“We just happen to play in the best league in the state and only get the two, maybe three berths,” Bollinger said. “With the amount of good teams in Kingco, it’s very difficult to get there. It’s very gratifying to see these kids work hard all year long and get better, get in a position to get there, and then do it.”
The Cougars (17-9), who scored just two points in the first six minutes of play and trailed 15-9 after the first quarter, leaned on standout guards Zach LaVine and Perrion Callandret.
The pair scored 26 and 17 points respectively in the win, and led the Cougar charge in the second quarter as the team opened up a 12-2 run to take the lead for good. LaVine also hauled in 12 rebounds for a big double-double.
For the game, LaVine went nine of 15 from the field and also sunk all seven of his free throw attempts. With Olympia threatening down the stretch, the Cougars were masterful from the line, shooting 90 percent, and 16 of 20 for the game (80 percent).
Bollinger described his team’s road to state as a maturation process, having started the year with a lot of hype, ranked No. 2 with a couple of talented stars in LaVine and Callandret, as well as three other impact players brand new to the program.
After suffering a 67-54 loss to Issaquah in the Kingco tournament on Feb. 10, Bollinger’s young team peaked at the right time and won four straight loser-out games to punch their unlikely ticket to state.
“They’ve come together as a team, matured as individual basketball players,” he said. “The raw talent that we have, that’s coming to the surface now.”
The Cougars went on to open up their state-tournament run in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 3:45 p.m., after the Reporter’s deadline, against top-ranked A.C. Davis out of Yakima (19-2). Bothell’s last state tournament appearance was at the Kingdome, where the Cougars placed eighth.
Bothell’s last state championship in basketball was in 1927, and since then, the Cougars have made nine tournament appearances with a high finish of second place in 1962, losing to Garfield 36-34 in the title game.
The team has decided to dedicate the state tournament run to Tim Driver, a close personal friend of Bollinger’s who passed away unexpectedly last September. Driver was the offensive coordinator for the Newport High football team, and had coached high-school sports for over 25 years, including basketball and softball at Bothell.
“We dedicated the state tournament to Tim, we did that at our team dinner last night,” Bollinger noted. “He was a big loss for all kids, he was just 100 percent for kids. Whatever he did, it was kid-motivated, working the at-risk programs for Lake Washington School District, and coached all the sports… he’s been with us every game, and we’re going to try to honor him with a good run in the state tournament.”
