FORKS — Minus one of the top players on their team, the Forks Spartans boys basketball squad held off Rochester 48-45 in overtime Wednesday on Senior Night in a SWL-Evergreen Division game.
Braden Decker, who is one-third of the offense and the top defender for Forks, coach Scott Justus said, has a skin disease, probably a bacterial infection, on a big toe.
There’s a possibility that Decker could miss the final two games of the regular season, at Hoquiam Friday night and at Rainier on Saturday night.
“I told the kids that they needed to score two more points than their average score [to make up for Decker’s absence],” Justus said.
They all scored the extra two points except for one player.
Still, it took overtime for second-place Forks (8-3, 12-5) to subdue last-place Rochester (1-12, 2-17).
Tyler Penn and Brady Castellano netted 13 points each to pace the Spartans.
“We never could get away from Rochester,” Justus said.
“We did come back after being down by five with 2:45 left in the game.”
Former Spartan Alexis Ayala had a game-high 16 points for Rochester.
Forks was tough on the boards with Castellano grabbing 12 rebounds, Cameron Leons hauling in seven and Shaquille Cress getting six.
Forks 48, Rochester 45, OT
Rochester 5 11 12 14 3— 45
Forks 13 11 11 7 6— 48
Individual scoring
Rochester (45)
Ayala 16, Rigsbee 11, Gedney 3, Carey 2, Grimmett 9, Smith 4.
Forks (48)
J. Penn 7, T. Penn 13, Castellano 13, Cress 4, Harris 5, Leons 6.
Chimacum 75,
Orting 52
CHIMACUM — Rafael Pagasian knocked down a game-high 18 points while Landon Cray scored 17 as the Cowboys earned a crucial Nisqually League win to jockey for playoff position.
Lucas Dukek added 14 points for the Cowboys.
Chimacum improved to 5-5 in league and 11-7 overall to get a stronger hold on fourth place.
Orting fell to 0-10, 0-17.
The Cowboys stormed out to a 41-22 halftime lead and never looked back.
Chimacum 75, Orting 52
Orting 10 12 18 12— 52
Chimacum 23 18 16 18— 75
Individual scoring
Orting (52)
Moore 7, Williams 14, Sunmore 3, Rios 9, Deudeu 2, Yoro 17.
Chimacum (75)
Cray 17, Eldridge 7, Pagasian 18, Dukek 14, Ajax 8, Downs 4, Glessing 7.
Neah Bay 70,
Clallam Bay 48
NEAH BAY — The Red Devils ran out to a 41-20 lead at halftime in the North Olympic League contest against their archrival and never looked back Wednesday night.
Leyton Doherty sparked the Red Devils with 15 points while Josiah Greene added 10.
Neah Bay improved to 5-0 in league and 13-3 overall.
Kevin Hess paced the Bruins with 13 points while Austin Ritter added 11.
Neah Bay’s Michael Dulik brought down a game-high 11 rebounds while Doherty had a game-high five steals.
Neah Bay 70, Clallam Bay 48
Clallam Bay 14 6 10 18— 48
Neah Bay 30 11 18 11— 70
Individual scoring
Clallam Bay (48)
A. Ritter 11, Welever 6, Cheeka 5, Portnoy 7, Hess 13, Gregory 6.
Neah Bay (70)
Doherty 15, Halttunen 7, Venske 2, Z. Greene 8, Dulik 8, J. Greene 10, Pascua 6, Smith 1, Hawkins 5.
Girls Basketball
Neah Bay 81, Clallam Bay 14
NEAH BAY — The Red Devils just can’t be stopped.
Neah Bay scored 53 points in the first half, let off the gas pedal a bit in the second half for 28 more points to stay perfect on the year at 5-0 in the North Olympic League and 14-0 overall Wednesday night.
Three players scored in double figures with Cherish Moss leading the way with 20 points on 6 of 9 3-pointers.
Rebecca Thompson sank 19 but she did it the old fashioned way, making 8 of 14 from the field and adding a 3-pointer on 1 of 1 shooting from downtown.
Courtney Winck added 12 points.
The Red Devils had 29 steals with Cherish Moss leading the way with seven while Winck and Cierra Moss had six each.
They also earned 20 assists with Thompson and Cherish Moss dishing out six apiece.
Only three players scored for the Bruins with Gloria Ojeda leading the way with eight.
Neah Bay 81, Clallam Bay 14
Clallam Bay 1 4 1 8— 14
Neah Bay 27 26 13 15— 81
Individual scoring
Clallam Bay (14)
Ojeda 8, Wilson 2, Welever 4.
Neah Bay (81)
Greene 4, Hahn 4, Thompson 19, Tyler 5, Murner 4, Winck 12, Ch. Moss 20, Ci. Moss 9, Chartraw 4.
Chimacum 83, Orting 51
CHIMACUM — The Cowboys scored a season-high 83 points on the 23 points each by Cydney Nelson and Kiersten Snyder.
The win gave Chimacum, 3-7 in the Nisqually League and 4-14 overall, a slim hope for the playoffs but it would need a lot of help to get there.
The Cowboys turned into a scoring machine thanks to a new system that coach Brad Burlingame said he has wanted to implement all year.
He uses a platoon system he saw on the Internet where he has the same five players on the court for just a minute at a time, then a second five-player group comes in.
It picks up the pace tremendously and makes it especially hard for the opposing team to play man-to-man defense.
“I have been wanting to do this all season and decided to go out and do it against Orting,” Burlingame said.
The new system evens up the playing field a little bit.
“We have some big players in this league,” he said.
Since the Cowboys aren’t very big, they can’t match up with most of the other teams.
Several Nisqually teams have players at least 6-foot-6 tall.
Cascade Christian and Seattle Christian, the two top teams in league, are two of the three best 1A squads in state, according to Burlingame.
The Cowboys had four players score in double figures with Lauren Thacker and Mallori Cossell scoring 10 each.
Thacker also led on the boards with nine while Hailee Johnson had six rebounds and five steals and Snyder had a team-high seven steals.
Nelson played most of the game with four fouls after picking them up early in the first quarter.
Chimacum, which next has a makeup game with Life Christian tonight at home, had a 38-27 lead against Orting at halftime and never looked back.
Chimacum 83, Orting 51
Orting 13 14 11 13— 51
Chimacum 16 22 16 29— 83
Individual scoring
Orting (51)
Burr 13, Pruden 6, Musseran 3, Whatley 1, Shaslug 2, Loftus 5, Carbon 16.
Chimacum (83)
Nelson 23, Snyder 23, Thacker 10, Cossell 10, King 2, Johnson 9.
