By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — Forks head coach Rick Gooding had good things to say about every one of his players as they filed out of the Spartans’ locker room Friday night.
“Team game,” Forks senior point guard Seth Johnson said in response to his coaches’ compliment — and the short and sweet reply was as accurate a summary of the game as Johnson’s entry passes into the post in a 60-42 nonleague boys basketball win over Port Townsend.
“That’s a great attitude, he knows what we need to do to be successful and I think we believed it,” Gooding said.
The Spartans used the inside-outside game to perfection to build an early lead and kept it up to shoot past the Redhawks.
Forks fed the post with persistence as Braton Armas had nine of his game-high 17 points and Iziah Morton came off the bench for four more points inside as Forks built a 22-3 lead just over a minute into the second quarter.
Focusing inside was all part of the plan, according to Gooding.
“Thursday at practice we had assistant coach Cameron LeDuke come bang against our [big] guys and it really made us more aggressive tonight,” Gooding said.
The Spartans also shot the lights out in the first half, hitting 7 of 12 in the first quarter and 4 of 8 in the second period.
“We are too good a shooting team to shoot the way we did in the first two games,” Gooding said. “It’s funny when one person hits a shot how it spreads to other guys. It’s just contagious.”
Port Townsend head coach Tom Webster had a holiday-themed take on his team’s tough night.
“We come in off the bus and walk in through their hallways and there’s Christmas decorations all over the walls and on every locker and we end the first quarter down 18-3,” Webster said.
“We got lit up like a Christmas tree.”
The Redhawks did a better job at fronting the post and Jaden Watkins hit three of his five 3-pointers in the second quarter to chip away some of Forks’ lead and trail 29-17 at halftime.
“Jaden played really hard for us,” Webster said. “They were ‘d-ing’ up Noa [Montoya]. Montoya had scored 24-plus points in three straight games coming into Friday’s game.
“We had a hard time guarding them and they outexecuted us,” Webster said.
An 11-0 Forks run out of the locker room, including 3-pointers by Cort Prose, Johnson and Joseph Reaume, buried Port Townsend and effectively ended the contest.
“The third quarter has been great for us,” Gooding said. “Think about that run we made coming out to start the third quarter. If they make that run, it’s a whole new ball game. But the game was over.”
Prose hit four 3s on the night and had 14 points.
“If he can get going like that, my goodness, we are going to be tough,” Gooding said.
Gooding also praised Johnson for his playmaking.
“Kudos to [Seth Johnson], he’s had some good scoring nights with 12 and 14 points, but you could see it in his eyes tonight that we was going to get people going offensively.”
Reaume and Tony Flores also played well, Gooding said.
“Joey as the head of our defense, “Gooding said. “We talked about it in there [locker room], Tony Flores what an absolute harasser of the basketball. I bet he had his hands on five basketballs a quarter. He gives us a spark.”
And Morton hit double figures with 11 points, including an exclamation-point 3-pointer to put Forks up 58-35 with 3:35 to go.
“Iziah had 11, I love to see that,” Gooding said. “He made it a mission. We make sure to block out and he absolutely made it a mission. When we played Neah Bay, they are fast and in the second half he didn’t play. What a great spirit to come out and play hard tonight.”
Forks (2-1) visits Sequim on Monday.
Port Townsend (3-2) visits Klahowya on Tuesday.
Forks 60, Port Townsend 42
Port Townsend 3 14 10 15— 42
Forks 18 11 21 10— 60
Port Townsend (42) — Watkins 16, Crawford 9, Krol 7, Montoya 6, Johnston 2, Winegar 2, Baabahar, Harris, Petta.
Forks (60) — Armas 17, Prose 14, Morton 11, Reaume 7, Johnson 6, Baysinger 3, Ness 2, Eastman, Davis, Olson.
