'We returned the favor': Garfield thrashes O'Dea to maintain spot atop Metro League, state

The Bulldogs, Washington's No. 1 team across all classifications, are one of two remaining undefeated Metro League teams.

SEATTLE — Five Garfield Bulldogs scored in double figures, including two reserves off the bench, and Sherrell Mccullum Jr. had 10 rebounds as the top-ranked Class 3A team in the state remained unbeaten with a convincing 98-61 victory over Metro League rival O’Dea on Tuesday.

“You know, (O’Dea coach Jason) Kerr’s a mastermind,” Garfield coach JayVon Nickens said. “He’s been kicking my butt for years. Finally we put some things together and we returned the favor.”

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The host Bulldogs, SBLive's top-ranked team in Washington across all classifications, got out to a 9-1 early lead, only to have the Irish storm back to tie the game at 9-9 with 2 minutes, 41 seconds left to play in the first quarter. It was the last time in the game that O’Dea would be close.

Garfield scored the next eight points and the Irish never would get closer than five again as Koren Johnson and Jaylin Stewart each scored 16 points to lead the way.

“Coach got on us the other day,” Johnson said. “He said we had to start playing like a team, stop the selfishness. We lost to these guys last year, so that really gave us the spark to come get this game from the beginning.”

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Just like at practice

With the motivation clearly in place, it didn’t matter that Garfield played its first game under the new Metro League edict that allowed no “fans” in the building for the next two weeks, due to the surge in omicron variant Covid-19 cases in Washington.

“This week has just been straight grind,” Nickens said. “We’ve got to do things a little different with Covid. When they say no parents, no fans, I don’t let parents or fans at my practices. So, we treated it like practice. We work extremely hard.”

That hard work paid off in a 28-14 sprint over the eight minutes of the second quarter, staking the Bulldogs to 45-25 lead at the half. O’Dea got the lead under 20 only one more time, with 5:41 to play in the third quarer on a Takeo Staten-Sylvester bucket that made it 52-33.

Dunkin’ fun

Just how free-flowing things got late in this one became illustrated by two offensive trips for the Bulldogs.

The first came after a Johnson steal and breakaway opportunity. As Johnson crossed the free throw line, he glanced behind himself to see that Emmett Marquardt was hustling in the trailing position.

Instead of laying the ball in himself, Johnson turned the play into a tip drill and bounced the ball off the backboard for Marquardt, who grabbed the “pass” and flushed it for the first of his 10 points with 2:58 to play in the third quarter, extending the Garfield lead to 62-33.

The second came later, on one of the final plays the starters saw. Again, there was a steal – this one by Raphiel Justice who got in front of everyone else.

Justice leapt with all of his 6-foot frame for the dunk, but instead the ball hit the side of the rim and fell away for a turnover. Nickens pulled his starters shortly thereafter for the final time with about five minutes to play in the game.

When Justice got to the bench, his coach playfully yanked at the top back of his jersey as the two smiled.

Great board work

As the Bulldogs controlled virtually every aspect of things on Tuesday, the glass was no different.

Sherrell Mccullum swept away 10 rebounds despite playing only about three quarters of the game, Jaylin Stewart and Emmett Marquardt each added five more boards in support as Garfield limited chances throughout for the Irish.

“I gave out assignments yesterday,” Nickens said. “And everybody has an assignment. Everybody has a role. They’re employees at Garfield High School, and they were hired to do their job. In the real world, if you don’t do your job you can be laid off or you can be demoted. So Sherrell has a job to do. He’s the man in the middle and I expect him to get all the rebounds.”

Of course, Nickens also knows that is unrealistic.

“Obviously, he won’t get all of them,” Nickens said. “But his teammates are supposed to have his back.”

—Doug Drowley, correspondant -- @STPWriteNow

(Feature photo by Vince Miller)