MONTESANO — Forks struggled with Rainier’s pressure defense early on, digging too big of a hole to climb out of in a 58-52 loss in the Class 2B Southwest District IV Girls Basketball tournament on Tuesday.
It was the third straight defeat for the Spartans against the No. 5 Mountaineers (18-3), including a winner-to-state district game last season and this year’s season opener, a 48-42 loss.
The No. 14 Spartans (15-6) bounced into the loser’s bracket with the defeat and will face Morton-White Pass (7-13) tonight at Castle Rock at 5:30 p.m.
“Unfortunately, we had a bad first quarter,” coach David Hurn said of the Rainier game. “We came out and struggled against a little bit of pressure. We were playing on our heels a little bit and Rainier came out hot and we dug ourselves a pretty big hole. It was 20-4 after one quarter and 33-12 at halftime.”
Hurn said Forks battled back into the game.
“We were able to fight and claw back into it, little bit by little bit,” Hurn said. “We played our style of basketball in the second half, attacking offensively and defensively. If we had a couple of more minutes on the clock and we would have overtaken them.
“But you can’t dig yourself such a hole against a top five team in the state in a playoff basketball atmosphere. If we can take anything away from it, it’s that we showed in the second half we can play with the better teams in the state.”
Rainier 58, Forks 52
Rainier 20 13 11 14 — 58
Forks 4 8 17 23 — 52
Forks (52) — JK. Johnson 20, Neel 16, Wood 9, Ramos 3, Gaydeski-St. John 2, B. Johnson 2.
Annie Wright at East Jefferson, canceled
PORT TOWNSEND — Down five of their top six players to illness, the Rivals canceled their contest with the Gators (15-6).
The game would not have impacted the Nisqually League playoff chase.
“We erred on the side of getting our kids healthy for Klahowya [tonight] and Saturday [district tournament game at Cascade Christian].”
The Rivals (7-8, 8-11) will face rival Klahowya at Chimacum High School tonight at 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball
Annie Wright 80, East Jefferson 34
TACOMA — The No. 3 Gators, undefeated Nisqually League champions at 16-0, 20-1 on the season, handled the Rivals.
“It was tough. They have a great team there at Annie Wright,” East Jefferson coach Emmanuel Abbott said.
The Rivals (5-10, 8-11) need to win tonight at rival Klahowya (4-11, 8-11) to seal the Nisqually League’s No. 6 seed to the district tournament and a game at No. 11 Vashon on Saturday.
