BURIEN — Port Angeles boys basketball was back at full strength for a pair of road wins over Kingston, 81-37, and Highline, 71-64, on Thursday and Friday.
Down six after dealing with foul trouble early in the fourth quarter against Highline on Friday the Roughriders rallied down the stretch.
Inside the final 45 seconds, Xander Maestas hit the go-ahead 3-pointer and Quanah Wheeler hit 4-of-4 free throws after two consecutive defense stops to close out the game.
“John [Vaara] had a big possession, Wyatt [Dunning] had a big one and Xander hit a huge 3 with about 45 seconds to give us a lead, a corner 3 to go up three,” coach Kasey Ulin said.
“We continued to compete and grind it out and I am happy with being able to pull out a win against a really good opponent.”
Highline is a state-caliber Class 2A squad with a Division I prospect in junior Amare Jackson. Jackson had 26 Friday.
Port Angeles was led by Dunning’s 29 points and 13 rebounds.
The Riders were hot in the first half Against Kingston, going up 60-22 at halftime.
“We were really good for most of the first half,” Ulin said. “Our ball movement was amazing, we had 14 assists at halftime and just a lot of unselfish basketball.”
Dunning led the way with 23 points, all in the first half.
Quanah Wheeler came close to a triple double with 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
“Maybe the best game of his career,” Ulin said. “He took great shots, distributed the ball well and just a great overall game.”
Port Angeles (4-0, 5-3) is scheduled to host Sequim (1-3, 2-5) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Port Angeles 71, Highline 64
PA 19 19 17 16 — 71
High. 18 16 20 10 — 64
Port Angeles (71) — Wheeler 10, Maestas 18, Dunning 29, Vaara 10, Nickerson 4.
Port Angeles 81, Kingston 37
PA 30 30 16 5 — 81
King. 15 7 12 3 — 37
Port Angeles (81) — Dunning 23, Vaara 13, Nickerson 5, Wheeler 22, Hall 8, Maestas 9, Burkhardt 1.
Forks 69, Ocosta 45
FORKS — Some second-quarter pressure defense aided the Spartans in gaining the upper hand in a Pacific 2B League victory Friday.
“We switched defenses and it’s not like we did anything amazing, a little three-quarter court pressure and it woke us up and we got some lay-ins,” coach Rick Gooding said. “It felt like the hoop opened up and we went from there.”
The Spartans received balanced scoring, Gooding said.
Freshman Brody Lausche had 16 points and nine rebounds to continue his recent strong stretch of play.
“He’s turning into a kid we are depending on more and more,” Gooding said of Lausche.
Keaton Northcutt added 16 points and Ryan Rancourt 13 for Forks.
Forks (4-1, 5-4) is scheduled to host Wahkiakum in a nonleague game scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday.
Forks 69, Ocosta 45
Ocosta 14 3 14 14 — 45
Forks 13 21 24 11 — 69
Forks (69) — Northcutt 16, Lausche 16, Rancourt 13, Olson 11, Micheau 7, Doyle 4, Davis 2, Earls.
