ONALASKA — The Onalaska girls basketball team dug itself a hole it couldn’t get out of late in the second quarter Wednesday evening at home in a non-league contest, and ultimately fell 53-43 to Forks.
“Our second quarter has been a struggle for us all year,” Onalaska coach Alana Olson said. “We’ve had a lot of great first quarters this year, and we came out strong in the first again, but in the second we just had a stretch of being a step slow on defense, and turnovers on offense.”
That stretch came in the final three minutes before halftime. The Loggers (4-7, 1-3 C2BL), who led by three points after a quarter, were up by five deep in the second, but fell apart in an 11-0 Forks run in the final two minutes and change to go into the break down 26-20.
Most of the Spartans’ points in that run came in transition, after Forks’ zone defense forced the ball out of point guard Emalie Jacoby’s hands early in possessions.
“When they switched to a zone, that definitely changed the face of the game,” Olson said. “We were beating them off the dribble when they were in man-to-man, and when they switched to zone we had to make more decisions, and that was a struggle for us tonight.”
Jacoby finished with a game-high 23 points, including all nine of Onalaska’s points in the second quarter, and was the only Logger to convert from beyond the arc..
“She works hard every game,” Olson said. “She’s definitely our catalyst.”
Behind her, Kiley Talley had nine points, and Jaycee Kinsman and Sommer Zurinskas both added four.
The Loggers had their flashes in the second half, but struggled to string possessions together to mount a comeback. They got the lead down to as few as four midway through the fourth quarter, but with the game on the line in make-or-break time, Forks cut the Loggers’ press to pieces with precision, ballooning the lead up to as many as 13 on more fastbreak layups.
“When we got overly-aggressive, we didn’t come up with the steals, and we got beat,” Olson said. “Which is a credit to Forks.”
Keira Johnson scored 20 points for the Spartans, with Bailey Johnson pitching in 14.
Onalaska will get back to Central 2B League action after New Year’s, facing Napavine on Jan. 3.
