FORKS — After three and a half quarters of sometimes ragged and always full-throttle basketball, the game turned on a technicality.
Technically it was a technical, but it was the eight consecutive free throws that followed that all but sealed the Evergreen League game for Rochester on Tuesday night.
When the dust settled on the hardwood, the Warriors were left holding on to a hard fought 58-50 victory over Forks behind a team-high 24-points from senior guard Jordan McLemore.
Not coincidentally, it was McLemore who sank the eight straight free throws during crunch time for Rochester.
“Down the stretch there, he knocked down his free throws. That’s a senior doing what he needs to do,”
Forks coach Rick Gooding said.
It was Gooding who earned the technical foul from the referees from his sideline perch, and although it was a decidedly borderline call in a tight contest, Gooding readily shouldered the blame.
“I apologized to the kids,” said Gooding.
“We preach selflessness on this team and that was the ultimate selfish act.”
Gooding added, “I do have the ability to be quiet.”
Despite his willingness to take the blame, the Warriors still had work to wrangle the victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fortifying McLemore’s charitable scoring was the all-around effort of Tanner Nelson.
Nelson, the Warriors only other returning varsity player besides McLemore, totaled 15 points and five rebounds.
A lanky senior post player, Nelson tallied those points on a barrage of disjointed post moves and a few sweet net-licking baseline jumpers.
As a team, the Warriors out-rebounded the Spartans by a slim margin of 31 to 28, led by Josh Kennedy’s nine boards, but turnovers made an even bigger difference in the outcome.
The Warriors held their turnovers to just single digits while the Spartans coughed the ball up nearly 20 times.
Rochester coach Mark Goldrick credited his team’s tough early season schedule versus larger-school opponents (R.A. Long, Woodland and Selah) for the Warriors’ sparkling 1-0 league record.
“I think we got a little bit of those nerves out the way early, so this game we didn’t really feel that pressure,” Goldrick said.
“We did okay with it [pressure], but I was happy we didn’t have four extra minutes.”
Goldrick’s comment reflected the late-game hot hand of Spartans senior sharpshooter Colton Raben.
“That Raben kid, if he gets it in the open court, it’s going to be hard for anybody to stay in front of him,” Goldrick said.
Raben finished the contest with a game-high 27 points on 8 of 16 shooting from the field and 7 for 7 from the charity stripe.
Jeffrey Schumack added nine points for Forks and Marky Adams grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
In spite of the tough league-opening loss, Gooding chose to see the silver lining in his team’s performance, saying, “I think everyone of our guys left it all out the court tonight. It just wasn’t the result we wanted.”
The Spartans (1-2 overall, 0-1 league) will play Friday at Elma.
Rochester 58, Forks 50
Rochester 7 12 17 22— 58
Forks 10 7 10 23— 50
Individual scoring
Rochester (58)
McLemore 24, Nelson 15, Larson 3, Rogers 3, Hawes 3, Escott 2.
Forks (50)
Raben 27, Schumack 9, Baysinger 6, Browning 6, Palmer 1, Tejano 1.
Girls Basketball
Rochester 62, Forks 17
FORKS — The Warriors of Rochester motored south on Highway 101 with a 62-17 victory over the Spartans after definitively claiming their first Evergreen League victory of the season.
The contest got off to an evenly matched, if contentious start.
After one tough quarter of play Tuesday, the score stood at 14-6 in Rochester’s favor, with hard fouls, tough words and challenges being exchanged between players, coaches, referees and even fans.
That early tension dissipated though as the Spartans offense stagnated to that point that simply getting up shot attempts became a staggering struggle versus swarming waves of Rochester defenders.
By halftime, the Warriors held a 37-12 lead and a two-point effort by Forks in the third quarter erased any remaining uncertainties.
Rochester blitzed Forks with a balanced offensive attack, led by Joni Lancaster’s 23 points and Sierra Seymour’s 16.
The entirety of Forks’ offensive attack was tallied by the efforts of Skyler DeMatties (12 points) and Alex Henderson (5).
In total, the Spartans were only able to muster 34 field goal attempts, knocking down just seven of those shots.
They also hit only 3 of 10 from the free-throw line.
Brooklynn Hostetler corralled eight of the team’s 26 rebounds for the Spartans.
“You look at that first quarter and we were decent,” Forks coach Al Scheibner said.
“But with a team like that, if you give them three straight turnovers, they’re going to take 20 turnovers in a row.”
The Warriors came into the contest battle-tested after playing 2A and 3A opponents Capitol, Tumwater and Woodland in their preseason.
“Last week helped,” Rochester coach AJ Easley said. “Playing those bigger schools gets you ready to go.”
On the other end of the court, Scheibner took the long view on his team’s season, even in the shadow of defeat.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Scheibner said flatly.
He added, “This is one of the hardest working groups of girls I’ve had, from the freshman to the seniors.”
DeMatties was a bright spot for the Spartans, shooting 5 of 7 from the floor and knocking down 2 of 3 free throws.
With nonleague victories versus Clallam Bay and North Beach tucked in their collective waistbands, the Spartans (2-1 overall, 0-1 league) will play at Elma on Friday.
Rochester 62, Forks 17
Rochester 14 23 19 6— 62
Forks 6 5 2 3— 17
Individual scoring
Rochester (62)
Lancaster 23, S. Seymour 16, Justice 7, Baird 6, Demers 6, A. Seymour 2, Black 2.
Forks (17)
DeMatties 12, Henderson 5.
