FORKS — The Forks boys basketball team, which has lived on defense all season, had perhaps its best defensive game of the year in turning back a strong Elma team Saturday night.

The then second-place Spartans earned a tie for first place in the SWL-Evergreen Division after beating the third-place Eagles 45-27.

League-leading Onalaska lost 55-53 to Hoquiam on Saturday night, setting up a battle for first place with Forks tonight at Onalaska in a makeup game.

Both Forks and Onalaska are 8-2 in league with the Spartans at 12-4 overall and Onalaska 10-6.

Elma, meanwhile, fell back at 7-4, 8-9 while Hoquiam is now a half-game behind Elma at 6-4, 9-6.

Tonight’s game between Forks and Onalaska starts at 7.

On Saturday night, the Spartan defense clamped down completely on Elma, holding the Eagles to seven points in the first half and top scorer Tate Shelton, who has been averaging 18 points per game the past four contests, to one point.

“We have been stopping the top scorer on each team we have played,” Forks coach Scott Justus said.

“We knew where Shelton was on the court at all times.”

The Spartans led 27-7 at halftime and never looked back.

Braden Decker led Forks with 15 points while Brady Castellano also netted double figures with 10 points while Tyler Penn was right behind with nine.

“We were pretty balanced in scoring,” Justus said.

Decker also hauled down eight rebounds while Cameron Leons and Tyler Penn had four steals each.

The team had a total of 12 steals on the night.

“Everyone had a couple of steals,” Justus said.

Junior guard Tre Harris, all 5-foot-6 of him, came off the bench to grab five rebounds and earn a couple of steals.

“Tre Harris was a huge spark off the bench for us,” Justus said. “He was everywhere on the floor.”

Kyle Emerson had a team-high 11 points for Elma.

Forks still is making up for the snow week two weeks ago and has four games this week.

After playing Onalaska tonight, the Spartans host Rochester on Wednesday, play at up-and-coming Hoquiam on Friday and then play at Rainier on Saturday night.

Forks 45, Elma 27

Elma 3 4 7 13— 27

Forks 14 13 7 11— 45

Individual scoring

Elma (27)

Emerson 11, Colin 7, Bremer 3, R. Stark 3, J. Stark 2, Shelton 1.

Forks (45)

Decker 15, Castellano 10, T. Penn 9, J. Penn 6, Leons 4, Cress 2, Harris 1.