There’s a lot to be learned for the Fort Vancouver’s boys basketball in a week facing the 3A Greater St. Helens League’s leaders.
For starters, senior guard Johnny Green noted, after dropping a pair of games at home to Prairie and Kelso, including Friday night’s 52-51 loss to the Hilanders when the Trappers had double-digit leads in both defeats, he knows these losses will only better prepare them for the next go-around.
And perhaps a better outcome.
“We had them,” said Green, who had a team-best 22 points and 11 rebounds. “We know now what good teams really do and we can’t make little mistakes on good teams.”
Fort coach James Ensley went even further, noting just four possessions in both games, including against Kelso, was the difference between a one-point loss and a one-point victory.
However, this week was his team’s best week of the season, he added.
“The kids are continuing to get better,” he said. “They kids gave it everything they had.”
It was the play of Green, in part, that helped the Trappers (7-7 overall, 1-3 3A GSHL) keep the fourth quarter a one-possession game after Kelso (10-3, 4-0) rallied after trailing by as many as 10 three minutes into the third quarter. Kelso used its senior-laden team, experience and interior size with 6-foot-5 Shaw Anderson to start the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 43-37 lead.
Green, though, kept Fort in it. He shot 11 of 18 from the field, and accounted for 12 straight points for Fort that couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.
Starting guard Jameel Morton (8 points) had left the game after taking an inadvertent shot to the eye from Green on defense late in the third quarter. He returned briefly, but was back on the bench later in the fourth. Ensley said he should be fine for Fort’s game at Hudson’s Bay next Wednesday to wrap up the first half of the 3A GSHL schedule.
Green’s point streak started at a floater that made it 37-32 Fort and ended at the 4:14 mark of the fourth with Kelso leading 48-47.
“I just kept seeing we were down and that wasn’t helping anything,” Green said, “and so I realized we had to do what we had to do to get back into the game.”
For Kelso, Anderson and senior guard Emmitt Kinch combined for 44 of Kelso’s 52 points. Kinch had all five of the Hilanders’ 3s, and hit a pair of free throws that put Kelso ahead 52-49 with 1:09 to play.
Emmitt Kinch was tagged for a technical foul with 9.3 seconds left up 52-49 after the senior fouled James Husband, Jr. He hit two free throws that pulled Fort within 52-51.
Fort regained possession after Husband’s free throws, but Kelso’s Peyton Noah drew a charge on Green, called for his fifth foul
Kelso coach and Emmitt’s father, Joe Kinch, said he was told the technical on his son the previous play was issued because Emmitt Kinch threw the basketball after committing the foul on Husband.
“I didn’t want to see (the game) end that way — win or lose,” Joe Kinch said. “Fort played a tremendous game. They had a great gameplan, and our kids were on their heals the first 16 minutes.”
KELSO 52, FORT VANCOUVER 51
KELSO — Spencer Davis 0, Emmitt Kinch 19, Riley Noah 3, Peyton Noah 4, Rece Tack 0, Anders Gamble 0, Shaw Anderson 25, Jon Bowlby 1. Totals 15 (5) 17-25 52.
FORT VANCOUVER — Dakota Jones 4, James Husband, Jr. 8, Johnny Green 22, Travis Huffman 3, Jameel Morton 6, Ezekiel Block 0, Myron Lawrence 8. Totals 19 (3) 10-12 51.
Kelso 7 6 23 16 — 52
Fort 9 13 15 14 — 51
