By Pierre LaBossiere

Olympic Peninsula News Group

ROCHESTER — The Forks boys basketball team got another big game from Aidan Salazer and blew out Ocosta 78-44 in their latest District 4 2B tournament game to move on to a third-round game Wednesday versus Chief Leschi.

The Spartans entered the fourth up 67-35 before letting the reserves play the fourth quarter. As a result, 11 different members of the team scored.

Salazar led the team with 27 points and six rebounds. Brody Lausche had 11 points and seven rebounds while Titus Rowley scored eight points.

The Spartans beat a team by 34 that they only beat by six points a few weeks ago, though coach Keith Weekes pointed out that even in that game Forks had a 25-point lead and Ocosta closed the score late.

“We played a little different defense and had most of our starters out in the third quarter,” Weekes said.

Weekes highlighted the play of DeAnthony Davila, who had six points, five rebounds and two assists in limited minutes. “He’s trying to prove what he can do,” Weekes said.

Now the Spartans (13-10) play another familiar foe, Chief Leschi, at Castle Rock High School at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in another loser-out game.

Chief Leschi is 17-5 on the season and ranked No. 9 in the state in Ratings Percentage Index. The Warriors have beaten the Spartans twice this season, 70-49 early in the season and 54-51 a couple of weeks ago in a thriller in Forks. Weekes pointed out that the second win, Chief Leschi hit a 3-pointer with a couple of seconds left.

“We hope we can replicate that effort,” he said. “We absolutely know we can play with them. We’re not quite the same team and we know what we need to do.”

Forks (78) — Salazar 27, Lausche 11, Rowley 8, Davila 6, Davis 6, Lohrengel 5, Foster 4, Gonzales 4, Olson 3, Micheau 2, Terrones 2.