Having just punched his ticket to the 2B state tournament in his first year as the Napavine boys basketball team’s head coach, Eric Hersman naturally wanted to talk about horses.
“If you ever watch the Clydesdale races or the team horse racing at the fair, it’s six or four or eight horses all working as one and pulling the same direction,” Hersman said. “That’s kind of how we try to play. We try to play like a bunch of Clydesdales, pulling in the same direction, and when we do, it works out pretty good.”
Hersman’s horses, coming off an upset in the semifinals of the district tournament, took a bit to find the path, but once they did, there was little Forks could do to stop them in a 68-33 rout in Chehalis.
The Tigers, after grinding their way to a 28-18 halftime lead, blitzed the Spartans with a 19-4 run in the third quarter, and got their lead out to as many as 41 to trigger the running clock before it was all said and done.
Now, Napavine is guaranteed a spot in the state bracket for the fourth consecutive year.
“It’s better than the alternative,” Hersman deadpanned. “Sixteen teams are still playing, and it feels nice to be one of those 16 teams. I think a lot of times, people have a tendency to take things like that for granted, and it’s important that we don’t. It’s tough to make it.”
For two quarters, it looked like Forks — the lone team from the Pacific 2B League still in contention Friday — would hang around with the C2BL champs, dominating the glass to the tune of nine offensive rebounds. But in the second half, Napavine found the solution, which simply was to take the ball away before the Spartans could get up a shot.
The Tigers pressed their way to nine Forks turnovers in the third quarter, finishing with 25 on the night. Karsen Denault — who on Wednesday secured the Napavine single-season steals record — came away with seven swipes and five blocks, while Cal Bullock had a pair of steals.
The defense kept Forks off the scoreboard for a solid five and a half minutes, letting Napavine balloon a 10-point lead out to 23.
“It’s a pretty quick group, with Cal and Beckett [Landram] and Karsen,” Hersman said. “Jack [Nelson] is quick; I don’t know if anybody is talking about his top-end speed, but he is quick. That’s what makes it tough. We just have to be reminded occasionally to not reach as much.”
Landram finished with a game-high 18 points, while Grady Wilson had 14 thanks to a 4-for-5 night from beyond the arc. Tyler Watson had 10 points.
Denault, who had a tough night from the field, went 6 for 8 from the free-throw line to finish with eight points, while pulling down eight rebounds and dishing out three assists to go along with his defensive numbers.
Forks, for its part, went an ice-cold 0-for-16 from beyond the arc.
Napavine will take on Rainier Saturday in Chehalis for third place and one last chance to make a case to the seeding committee. Then on Sunday, the Tigers will learn their Regional fate, and begin playing the games that really matter.
And Hersman will be hoping for another solid race from his Clydesdales.
“I just want them to play hard and play together, and it looked like we did that in the third quarter, in the second half,” Hersman said. “I think we got away from that against Toledo, so it was nice to see us get back to who we are.”
