High school basketball: Titans notch 3rd straight region title

For as long as Matt Barnes has been coaching Olympus, the Titans have been known as a run-and-gun team that loves to play an up-tempo style and shoot the three.

That philosophy definitely hasn't changed, and the scary thing for the rest of Class 4A with the state tournament just around the corner is that the Titans are starting to play a complementary brand of defense.

With the Region 6 title up for grabs Tuesday night, Olympus' defensive intensity gave West fits all game, with the Titans cruising to the 72-53 road victory and their third straight league title.

"West is athletic and really talented, and I think we used our length and our toughness to really stick it to them, and I think that proved to be the difference," said Olympus guard Nicholas Paulos.

Olympus held West to 35 percent shooting and forced 14 turnovers, but as dominant as the defense was the Titans' shooting prowess was equally impressive.

The Titans knocked down eight 3-pointers — four fewer than their January blowout win over West — and finished the game shooting 54 percent from the field.

"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," said Barnes. "We're shooting the ball pretty well. The last couple games we haven't shot it well, but overall for the season we've shot it well."

Corbin Green led the way with 20 points, with Paulos and Connor Brady chipping in with 18 apiece.

For as well as Olympus (15-4) played Tuesday — and it was arguably its best performance of the season — it definitely capitalized on some questionable mental lapses by West big man Ricardo Saldana.

With West leading 14-13 after the first quarter, Saldana picked up two quick fouls to start the second quarter and was subbed out. When he finally returned to the game later that quarter Olympus had stormed in front 25-15 and eventually built a 30-17 halftime lead.

It got worse for Saldana in the third quarter as a he picked up a quick technical foul and eventually fouled out with 4:38 left in the quarter.

"It helped us tonight to get Saldana his fifth foul quickly in the third, that kind of killed them," said Barnes. "That gave us the mismatch inside."

Ironically, with Saldana on the bench West found a bit of a rhythm and whittled Olympus' lead to 43-38 early in the fourth quarter. That's when the Titan defense took over.

The Titans forced four quick turnovers during the next several minutes, fueling a 12-1 spurt.

email: jedward@desnews.com