ELLENSBURG — Cle Elum-Roslyn controlled the offensive glass and limited Forks all night offensively to oust the 14th-seeded Spartans 65-36 in a Class 2B state regional round contest Friday night at Ellensburg High School.
Played less than 25 miles from the Warriors’ campus, Cle Elum-Roslyn students and fans packed the stands and made for a raucous atmosphere from the opening tip.
“We weren’t quite prepared for that moment,” coach David Hurn said. “That’s part of our growth as a team and a program. They play with such enthusiasm and interest and it wasn’t quite there for us last night. It’s unfortunate we got whooped on, but you have to take it and look back on what we did to get to where we were.”
Hurn was referencing Forks’ undefeated Pacific League championship, the team’s second straight league title, playing one of the most difficult schedules they could and navigating through the district tournament to quality for a return to state.
“As a coach, you try and set high expectations and you have to be realistic at some point,” Hurn said. “Before the season, I knew we could compete for the league title, but I didn’t know we could what we did and go undefeated. And then we wanted to make state and I didn’t know if we could get through districts, but they did, and I couldn’t be more proud of them for how they worked and grew this season.”
Time of possession isn’t normally a statistic used to decipher the outcome of a prep basketball game — football or soccer, sure — but not hoops. Cle Elum-Roslyn was able to use its size advantage down low to retain possession over and over again after missed shot attempts.
The Warriors were able to use those second-and-third chances to find the bottom of the net or draw fouls.
When Forks did have the ball offensively, it didn’t have it for long, losing possession after a string of traveling violations and turnovers.
“They won the battle in the paint, they were physical, they had height and they worked hard going after the ball,” Hurn said.
“And they worked the short corner on us defensively.
“And the margin of error at the state tournament is so small that they were able to exploit a little error on our part and make it a bigger error.”
The Spartans (19-8) will graduate Keira Johnson, Forks’ all-time leading scorer who finished with 16 points in her final game; Janessa Ramos and Brynn Daniels.
“To me it’s an internal drive,” Hurn said of what he will remember about the trio. “They are such driven individuals. They are determined to be successful in everything they do, basketball, school and life, and they will be.”
Cle Elum-Roslyn 65, Forks 36
Forks 9 7 10 10 — 36
Cle Elum-Roslyn 17 17 18 13— 65
Forks (36) — K. Johnson 16, B. Johnson 6, Ramos 6, Neel 3, Dilley 2, Daniels 2, Gaydeski 1.
