ELMA — Forks finished with a flourish, overcoming a slow start against Elma and its loud home crowd to earn a 67-49 nonleague boys basketball win Friday.
The Spartans (5-0) stayed unbeaten with the victory over their former Evergreen League foes.
“Started off a bit slow, third game of the week, and Elma always has such a great home atmosphere with the band and crowd,” Forks coach Keith Weekes said. “We try to focus on one possession at a time, win each trip up and down the floor, move on from the last no matter a positive or negative outcome, and this game really showed that.”
The Spartans whittled away Elma’s lead after the first quarter and held a 29-28 lead at the break.
“We came out fast and hard in the third, nonstop pushing and attacking,” Weekes said. “We felt we were better conditioned and were getting great chances because of it. Elma started missing some shots and free throws that should have been made and it just took more out of them. Our boys fed off our small crowd. It almost felt like a home game for us.”
Titus Rowley (24 points and 12 rebounds) and Brody Lausche (12 and 17 rebounds) controlled play inside.
“Brody and Titus continued to dominate the glass, we out rebounded Elma as a team by almost 30,” Weekes said. “They are learning to play with each other more and more each game. Each of them has always been the only big and used to doing it all, seeing two of them work they way they are is great.
“All of our guards did a great job staying calm, controlling the game continuing to step up and do their best on defense,” Weekes said. “Landen [Olson] struggled with shooting this game but never stopped finding ways to help contribute and his teammates were constantly encouraging him and had his back, it was awesome to see.”
Forks visits Hoquiam tonight.
Forks 67, Elma 49
Forks 9 20 20 18 — 67
Elma 16 12 8 12 — 49
Forks (67) — Rowley 24, Lausche 12, Hernandez 8, Foster 6, Lohrengel 5, Olson 5, Davila 5, Terrones 2, Barajas, Willenbrink.
Crescent 68, Ocosta 56
OCOSTA — The Crescent boys basketball team hit 11 3-pointers and got big games from Mikah Love, Dom Sprague and Henry Bourm in holding off Ocosta 68-56 on Saturday, improving to 4-2.
“We have had some struggles putting the ball in the basket the last couple times out so it was very nice to get guys making shots,” said coach Chris Ferrier. “The second quarter was really the difference, holding the Wildcats to single digit points in a game where the pace of play was very conducive to a high point output.
“We were 22 of 41 from the field including 11 of 17 from the three [point line]. If you shoot that well you are generally going to be in great shape,” Ferrier said.
Love hit six 3-pointers and finished with 27 points. Sprague shot 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and scored 14, while Bourm was 6-or-8 from the line and scored 16.
“More importantly, we didn’t foul, and Ocosta didn’t shoot many free throws, their seven to our 22. That’s the difference in the game,” Ferrier said.
The Loggers next play at Quilcene on Wednesday.
Crescent 68, Ocosta 56
Crescent 13 17 22 16 — 68
Ocosta 16 9 15 16 — 56
Crescent (68) — Love 27, D. Sprague 14, H. Bourm 16, Noel 4, L. Bourm 5, J. Sprague 2.
Cascade Christian 84, East Jefferson 45
PUYALLUP — The Rivals were held back by a Cougars team with state tournament dreams.
“Cascade Christian is a really good group. They’re deeper and more experienced than most 1A teams — certainly a group that has aspirations toward Yakima in March,” Rivals coach Adam Washburn said. “While our guys didn’t play to the level that they’d like, I think the combo of a great opponent in their gym affected us. We played well for a section of the third quarter, so we’ll take that forward with us this week.”
John Mercado hit all six of his free throw attempts and led the way with 13 points for East Jefferson while Tray Brown hit 3-of-5 3-point tries and had 12 points.
Asher Little also drained 3-of-5 shots from beyond the line.
Windy weather postponed East Jefferson’s (1-3) ferry ride over to visit South Whidbey on Saturday. The Rivals travel to Bellevue Christian on Friday.
