CHEHALIS — Forks sealed its first girls basketball state tournament appearance since 2007 with a 57-46 Southwest District IV Tournament victory over Toutle Lake on Thursday at W.F. West High School.
“I usually don’t get too emotional, but looking at the seniors, seeing Kadie [Wood] tearing up immediately after the game and looking back at all the hard work they’ve put in over the last four years to get here,” coach David Hurn said.
“It’s been since 2007 for this program, so it’s important. Our first goal was a league championship and second goal was to make state, so to see the girls’ efforts pay off is special and something I won’t forget.”
The Spartans (18-6) advanced to face Rainier (19-4) today in the third/fourth place district contest at 1:30 p.m. back at W.F. West.
Forks found themselves down 10 against the Ducks in the second quarter on Thursday.
“The real turning point for us was about 3 minutes left in the second quarter and we were down 10 after a Toutle run. We sent them to the foul line quite a bit and they had 11 from the foul line in first half,” Hurn said.
“We called timeout, made some adjustments and went on a 13-1 run to close the half and take the lead by two.”
Hurn said Forks’ physicality wore the Ducks down over the course of the game.
“We didn’t make any 3-pointers, it was just us attacking the rim and rebounding the basketball and playing tough,” Hurn said.
“Kyra [Neel] on the boards was huge for us, she did a great job of wearing them down.”
Neel had 16 rebounds, nine on the offensive glass, to go along with eight points.
Keira Johnson led Forks with 22 points, including 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Wood had 20 points, including hitting 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch.
“Kadie and Kyra have been playing with the mindset that they aren’t done yet and we are going to play with energy and physicality and it’s spread to everyone else,” Hurn said.
Forks 57, Toutle Lake 46
Toutle 10 15 10 11— 46
Forks 12 15 12 17— 57
Toutle Lake (46) — L. Dean 9, P. Thayer 7, K. Dean 5, J. Smith 11, H. Cooper 9, K. Smith 5.
Forks (57) — K. Johnson 22, Wood 20, Neel 8. Gaydeski-St. Jon 3, Ramos 2, Whorton 2.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
