FORKS — Braton Armas collected a pass from Cort Prose and scored inside as time expired to lift Forks to a 62-60 come-from-behind boys basketball victory over Hoquiam.
“There was 13 seconds left in a tie game and we wanted to get Seth [Johnson] in some open space,” Spartans coach Rick Gooding said. “They did a good job of crowding him, so he got the ball up to Cort and Cort drove towards the paint and did a great job of keeping his eyes up to find Braton inside. And Braton powered one up and in the basket as time expired.
“Good ball movement. We didn’t panic when things broke down and we got the ball to the right spot. That was great to see.”
Forks’ posts did the heavy lifting inside as the Spartans rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit in Tuesday’s game.
Armas led Forks with 16 points, nine of them coming in the fourth, including the game winner. Iziah Morton had 10 points, eight in the third quarter and Trey Baysinger added nine points.
“Our bigs did a great job,” Gooding said. “They have two big kids and our big guys did a great job getting inside and working hard. Braton had nine of his 16 in the fourth. Iziah’s third quarter was awesome. Trey came in the second quarter and gave us five points. Nice to get those guys all rotated around and playing efficiently.”
Johnson added 14 points and Prose added nine for the Spartans.
“We were down 11 at halftime, so we have to stop burying ourselves in these holes,” Gooding said. “But it was nice to see some fight. If we can put a first and second half together we’d be OK.”
Forks (3-1, 11-4) is now in a three-way tie with Hoquiam (3-1, 7-8) and Montesano (2-1, 8-7) for the top spot in the Evergreen League.
“The second half of league play is going to be interesting,” Gooding said.
The Spartans host Tenino (1-3, 9-5) on Friday.
Forks 62, Hoquiam 60
Hoquiam 18 16 15 11— 60
Forks 11 13 24 16— 62
Hoquiam (60) — Dicks 5, Dayvon 15, Eccles 10, Estes 2, Bumstead 19, McMillian 3, Brown 6.
Forks (62) — Johnson 14, Reaume 4, Baar, Baysinger 9, Flores 2, Armas 16, Prose 9, Morton 10.
Klahowya 50, Port Townsend 45
PORT TOWNSEND — The Redhawks attempt to beat the Eagles and stay alive for the Olympic League 1A Division title ended with a home loss Tuesday.
If Port Townsend would have won the game, the league title would have come down to a third contest between the teams at Klahowya on Jan. 31.
They came in there, they beat us, I have to give them credit,” Redhawks coach Tom Webster said. “We started out up 6-0, we fouled Gabe Smith on a 3-point shot which turned into a four-point play. I think we led 10-8 and that was pretty much the last time we had a lead all game.”
Webster said poor shooting was the deciding factor.
“We just didn’t shoot well,” he said. “We were shooting a lot of contested jump shots and you aren’t going to hit as many of those.”
“We were holding [John] Hartford pretty well defensively, but they had some other guys making some shots. The Kraft brothers combined for 14, [Lucas] Becker got 10 inside. We were mainly scoring in transition or with 3s. We made five but we took a lot more.”
Webster said Port Townsend pulled within as close as 43-39 in the fourth quarter.
“It looked like we had a good chance to take the lead, but we didn’t do it,” Webster said. “We took some bad shots and didn’t convert.”
Jayden Watkins and Cole Crawford led the Redhawks with 13 points apiece. Noa Montoya added 12.
Port Townsend (2-2, 7-5) will take the league’s second seed to the district tournament and visit the Nisqually No. 3 on Feb. 9.
The Redhawks continue the regular season Friday with a nonleague game at Bear Creek School in Redmond.
Klahowya 50, Port Townsend 45
Klahowya 17 10 13 10— 50
Port Townsend 15 9 7 14— 45
Klahowya (50) — G. Smith 15, Becker 10, Hartford 9, D. Craft 8, J. Craft 6, Betzing 2.
Port Townsend (45) — Watkins 13, Crawford 13, Montoya 12, Winegar 5, Krol 2.
Port Angeles 68, Kingston 38
KINGSTON — With defending Olympic League champion North Kitsap coming to town Friday, the Roughriders avoided a letdown Tuesday night’s trap game against the Buccaneers.
“We jumped out on them 18-2 to open the game,” Port Angeles coach Kasey Ulin said. “The guys played with a lot of energy and we were able to use our depth.”
Ulin said the team tried out a new zone defense and forced 37 turnovers.
“Our defensive pressure was pretty good throughout the night,” Ulin said.
Kyle Benedict led the Riders with 22 points, despite the Port Angeles starters playing limited minutes.
Chase Cobb had 11 points, eights steals, five assists and six rebounds off the bench for the Riders (6-1, 11-4).
“He’s worked hard and is playing really well and with confidence,” Ulin said.
Stuart Methner also was active with six steals.
Port Angeles, ranked 16th in the WIAA’s RPI, will host No. 3 North Kitsap (7-0, 13-2) at home Friday.
“Now we move on to the biggest game of the year,” Ulin said. “We want North Kitsap, we are exicted to have them coming up. We felt like we gave them that game at North Kitsap (a 58-54 win on a late 3-pointer).
“I’m excited for a loud gym, a packed gym on Friday. “Our guys are passionately going after what they want and they want to bring a league championship to Port Angeles.”
Port Angeles 68, Kingston 38
Port Angeles 22 16 15 15— 68
Kingston 6 7 9 16— 38
Port Angeles (68) — Benedict 22, Schmidt 12, Cobb 11, L. Clark 7, Edwards 4, Nickerson 6, Maestas 2, Johnson 4, Long, Methner, D. Clark, Jarnagin.
Sequim 72, North Mason 62
BELFAIR — Nate Despain had 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals to lift the Wolves to a road win over the Bullodogs.
Despain was on fire from the floor, hitting 9 of 12 shots, including sinking 6 of 7 3-point baskets and all six free throw attempts.
Erik Christiansen scored 11 points and Michael Young had eight for Sequim.
The Wolves (4-3, 8-5) played at Klahowya late Wednesday and travel to Bremerton on Friday.
Sequim 72, North Mason 62
Sequim 13 15 20 24— 72
North Mason 15 15 9 23— 62
Sequim (72) — N. Despain 30, Christiansen 11, Young 8, Rollness 6, D. Despain 5, Wiker 4, Eaton 4, Cowan 2, Oliver 2, Langston.
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Compiled from team reports. Email scores to sports@peninsuladailynews.com or phone 360-417-3525.
Lonnie Archibald/for Peninsula Daily News Forks’ Joseph Reaume, left, is fouled by Hoquiam’s Cameron Brumstead during the Spartans’ 62-60 win over the Grizzlies.
Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News Port Townsend’s Noa Montoya goes for two against the block of Klahowya’s John Hartford during a Tuesday night game in Port Townsend.
