FORKS — North Beach’s Austin Perez slipped in the game-winning shot with three seconds to play to knock off Forks 66-64.
Tuesday’s game was the nonleague boys basketball season-opener for each team.
“Perez hit 12 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, including two big 3’s,” Spartans coach Rick Gooding said.
Perez notched the final bucket on a broken play.
“It was an isolation play for Perez and it was really well defended by Cole [Baysinger],” Gooding said.
“He drove and the ball popped loose and bounced around and came back to him right under the hoop and he made the shot.”
Forks’ desperation buzzer-beater missed the mark.
Marky Adams led the Spartans with 22 points.
“He had at least 20 rebounds, he had a ton of rebounds,” Gooding said of the 6-foot-8 center.
“He kind of took over in the second half and he had 10 in the fourth quarter alone.
“He’s a big boy, he was getting exhausted in the fourth but he played through it and did well.”
Forks led the Hyaks 29-26 at halftime but failed to hit the boards in the third quarter.
“The difference was they outscored us by 10 in the third quarter,” Gooding said.
“They didn’t really do anything specific, they just got a ton of extra possessions from offensive rebounds.
“We refused to block out and didn’t play very good help-side defense.”
Gooding wondered if his team came in too confident after a good showing in a jamboree at Port Angeles on Monday.
“I guess it’s typical of the kinds of things you are going to see in your first game,” Gooding said.
“It was kinda disappointing after a jamboree where we did a lot of things well.
“I don’t know if we came in too cocky, or if we rely on Marky to get rebounds too much, but we had a lot of guys pretty much refuse to block out and that was pretty frustrating to see.”
Parker Browning added 19 points and freshman Cort Prose notched 11 in his first varsity game for Forks.
The Spartans (0-1) host Rochester on Tuesday.
North Beach 66, Forks 64
North Beach 15 11 22 18— 66
Forks 14 15 12 23— 64
Individual scoring
North Beach (66)
Poplin 19, Cebrely 17, Perez 15, Forvour 9, Gabiz 4, Wagner 2.
Forks (64)
Adams 22, Browning 19, Prose 11, Schumack 4, Baysinger 3, Tejano 3, Ramsey 2, Pegram.
Girls Basketball
North Beach 49, Forks 35
FORKS — The Spartans were unable to get the first win of new head coach Madison (Justus) Riebe’s career in the season opener against the Hyaks.
“The girls played well for their first game of the season,” Riebe said.
“There are some fundamental things that we need to back to practice and work on, but there were a lot of good things happening.”
Alexis Leons led Forks with 11 points and junior point guard Skyler DeMatties added 10.
The Spartans (0-1) host Rochester on Tuesday.
North Beach 49, Forks 35
North Beach 14 10 13 12— 49
Forks 6 8 9 12— 35
Individual scoring
North Beach (49)
Ivey 14, Moore 11, Avery 7, Takagi 7, Pope 6, Garman 4.
Forks (35)
Leons 11, DeMatties 10, Goodlance 6, Henry 4, Kratzer 2, Woodruff 2.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Compiled using team reports.