CHIMACUM — It wasn’t hard to tell it was the first week of the season during the Forks-Chimacum basketball doubleheader Friday night.
Between all of the turnovers, missed shots and broken plays, the early season’s kinks were on full display in each nonleague tilt.
Yet the Spartans managed to pull out both of them, with the boys team holding off a late Chimacum rally for a 42-35 win and the girls team shutting down its short-handed counterparts 30-13.
“It may have been one of the ugliest games I’ve ever been involved in, and I coached middle school,” said Spartans coach Scott Justus, referencing the boys game’s 51 turnovers combined.
“To win a ball game with 25 turnovers? That’s ugly.”
Forks’ Fernando Hernandez rose above the fray to put up a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
That, combined with his team-high four assists, was enough to vault the Spartans (1-1 overall) to their first win of the season.
The Cowboys (0-3), meanwhile, were handed their third straight loss during the opening week of the season, stretching their Peninsula-worst losing streak to 25 games.
The skid stretches back to February of 2008.
“You’ve got to change the attitude,” said first-year coach Jim Eldridge, whose Cowboys were playing their third game in four nights. “Losing is easy, winning is hard. That’s part of what makes it so good.
“It takes hard work to get those wins, so we just got to keep fighting for them.”
Forks outscored Chimacum 21-10 between the second and third quarters to take a 35-24 lead into the final frame.
Chimacum got as close as six points in the fourth quarter following a Quinn Eldridge 3-pointer with a little less than two minutes remaining.
But that was the last field goal the Cowboys, who turned the ball over 26 times themselves, got the rest of the game.
Quinn Eldridge finished with 10 points to lead Chimacum while Landon Cray added nine and Dylan Brown eight points and 10 rebounds.
“We’re still not executing very well,” coach Eldridge said. “We’re just making poor decisions on some of our passes. We just get going too fast sometimes.”
Tyler Penn was the only other Spartan in double figures with 10 points. He also dished out four assists, and Brady Castellano and Frank Noles each scored six points.
“Everybody hustled,” said Hernandez, who had seven rebounds on the offensive glass. “Everybody was hustling and causing pressure for [Chimacum].
“We played a lot better than Tuesday’s game [a 72-46 loss to 2A Hoquiam], especially in the first half.
“It was a big difference.”
Forks 42, Chimacum 35
Forks 14 10 11 7 — 42
Chimacum 14 4 6 11 — 35
Individual Scoring
Forks (42)
Hernandez 14, T. Penn 10, Castellano 6, Noles 6, Decker 4, Ayala 2.
Chimacum (35)
Eldridge 10, Cray 9, Brown 8, Riggle 4, Moug 2, Toepper 2.
Girls Basketball Forks 30, Chimacum 13
CHIMACUM — The Spartans took full advantage of the short-handed Cowboys, holding them to just six field goals and 13 points for a blowout win.
Forks surrendered just two points each in the first, third and fourth quarters, as Chimacum clearly struggled without starters Arlie Petrick (concussion) and Brittany Nelson (work).
“Not only did we miss their scoring, we missed the continuity of what they would bring to the table,” Chimacum (1-2) coach Mike Clarke said.
“We just haven’t had time to practice with all these games jammed together.”
Forks (1-0) didn’t get completely untracked itself until the second half, when it outscored Chimacum 22-4.
Paige Kennedy led a group of seven Spartan scorers with seven points.
Gwen Gillett dropped in six for Forks while senior post Mariah Dillard had five points and 10 rebounds and point guard Kylea Allen four assists.
“It was a pretty typical first game,” Forks coach Dave Zellar said. “We got a lot of really good shots, they just didn’t fall for us.”
The Forks press forced the younger Cowboys squad into more than 30 turnovers.
That allowed the Spartans to overcome a cold shooting night from the field.
“Overall, they played defense like I wanted them to,” Zellar said. “We’re a fairly quick team, so defense and pressing is going to be one of our big games.”
Only three Cowboys ended up scoring, with Cydney Nelson’s six points a team high.
Forks 30, Chimacum 13
Forks 4 4 10 12 — 30
Chimacum 2 7 2 2 — 13
Individual Scoring
Forks (30)
Kennedy 7, Gillett 6, Dillard 5, Allen 4, Williams 4, Morris 2, Raben 2.
Chimacum (13)
C. Nelson 6, Castillo 5, Benner 2.