NEAH BAY — With a shooting range that seems to extend the 4 miles from the Neah Bay gym to Hobuck Beach, Red Devils senior Tristin Johnson is a serious weapon.
Johnson tore apart Forks’ 2-3 zone defense in the early moments of Neah Bay’s 61-41 nonleague girls basketball win over Forks Tuesday night, connecting on four consecutive 3-point attempts and scoring the game’s first 14 points as the Red Devils rolled out to a 15-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
The gym lights even dimmed during Johnson’s run, prompting many to quip that she had shot the lights out.
Johnson finished with 27 points, eight steals and five rebounds.
“It was a lot easier on us [playing against a 2-3 zone],” Johnson said. We’ve been seeing a lot of man-to-man from teams, so it opened up a lot for us.”
During her scoring spree Johnson drained two treys from the left wing, dialed one in from NBA 3-point range on the right side and then switched back to the left for her final trey of the first quarter.
Neah Bay coach Tony McCaulley said he has no qualms about seeing his senior shooter pull up from deep.
“I’m OK with it from wherever, especially against the 2-3 zone,” McCaulley said. “She got in love with it a little bit, but you have to heat check it you know. I probably should have rested her a little bit more, but when she’s shooting like that you just let her do her thing.”
The Red Devils led Forks 17-5 after one quarter, holding down the Spartans with some aggressive man-to-man defense. Forks’ offense came on in the second quarter to score 16 and trail Neah Bay 41-21 at halftime, but the damage had been done.
Gina McCaulley and Cheyenna Svec came on in the second quarter and scored eight and six, respectively for Neah Bay.
“Cheyenna shot the ball well, Gina shot the ball well, and then Cei’J [Gagnon] and Vonte [Aguirre] did some good work down low,” McCaulley said.
McCaulley scored 10 points with five assists, three rebounds and a steal.
Svec finished with eight points, three assists, three steals and a block.
Aguirre notched a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and also added four steals.
McCaulley liked his team’s defensive intensity.
“I was super impressed with our defense more than anything,” McCaulley said.
“We shot the ball good in the first half, but we’ve been working on our man-to-man defense, our talking, our switching. Defensively, I was real happy. Forks was running some good man-to-man offensive sets but we were shutting it down, fighting through screens and talking out there. I was happy with that. “
Johnson also was encouraged by her team’s defensive performance.
“We’ve been practicing the deny defense, the man-to-man denial,” Johnson said.
“We did well defending them tonight.”
Save for Neah Bay’s opening salvo, the Spartans settled down and played some steady basketball for the remainder of the contest.
“A team like that [Neah Bay], it would have to rain on a sunshiney day for us to catch up to them,” Forks coach John DeMatties said.
DeMatties said his young team is improving with each day and learning more and more about the game but there are still plenty of gaps in their knowledge level.
“It’s hard when you don’t do a lot of things because you aren’t able to do it,” DeMatties said. “It’s hard to go deep and really run through on offensive sets and plays. We have to keep it basic. And defensively, you can notice on our zone we aren’t positioned where we can trap in it. We move well in the zone, but we have to be packed in a little bit and that played into their hands at the start.”
Senior point guard Skyler DeMatties led Forks with 18 points.
“You got to see her play her game,” coach/dad DeMatties said.
“She plays hard.”
After a winless 2015-16 season, Forks (2-3, 4-10) is in the mix for a district playoff berth.
“We are doing just fine,” DeMatties said.
“Making the playoffs is all up to us. “The girls know they have a chance to earn themselves a playoff spot and that’s all you can really ask for.”
Neah Bay (6-0, 14-3) is ranked 12th in the WIAA’s RPI rankings. The Red Devils hosted No. 13 Clallam Bay (4-2, 10-4) late Wednesday.
Neah Bay 61, Forks 41
Forks 5 16 10 10— 41
Neah Bay 17 24 9 11— 61
Forks (41) — DeMatties 18, Peters 8, Olson 6, Rondeau 2, Kratzer 2, Hoagland 2, Baar 2, Woodruff 1, Rowley.
Neah Bay (61) — Johnson 27, Aguirre 11, McCaulley 10, Svec 8, Gagnon 4, Lovik 1, Halttunnen, Jimmicum, Winck, Balderson.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
