By Chris Wells Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Senior Jordan Norberg saved his best for his last home game as his career-high 14 points propelled Port Angeles to a 45-30 Olympic League victory over Port Townsend on the Roughriders’ senior night Monday.
Norberg said having this game on senior night made it all the more special.
“It was really awesome,” Norberg said. “I was surprised it came out like that, and it was really fun.”
Port Angeles coach Wes Armstrong said he was happy for his seldom-used forward.
“I was proud of Jordan,” Armstrong said. “This is his senior year and this is the first time he has ever started. And he did a fantastic job for us tonight. I’m really proud of him.
“As a matter of fact, I am proud of all those seniors. They play phenomenal. They’ve been a lot of fun the last three years, so I’m glad they know they had a W on their last home game.”
Even though Port Angeles and its seven seniors picked up what appeared to be a comfortable win, it was far from that.
“Well, this was our fourth game in six days, so obviously we’re a little bit tired and fatigued,” Armstrong said.
“But you know, [Port Townsend] coach [Tom] Webster always has his kids prepared to play, and they came out and gave us a good fight tonight.
“I wasn’t really pleased with our offense, we were a little stagnate, not a lot of movement. We weren’t shooting the ball very well, but a lot of that could be attributed to tired legs and whatnot.”
Redskins play tough
Port Townsend, which relied on the play of guards Kyle Kelly and Jacob King, did just enough to stay in the game for the first three quarters, finishing both the second and third quarters down by just two points.
However, in the fourth, everything changed for Port Angeles as the Roughriders outscored the Redskins 15-2.
“I just told them to keep their heads hanging up high, keep getting after it and be a little more aggressive on offense,” Armstrong said.
“As you can see, we got a little more aggressive in that fourth quarter. I was pleased with how they responded in the fourth quarter.
“But still, as a team, as we enter the playoffs, we have to start playing a complete game and we’re far from that right now.
“These guys will respond and we’ll get going.”
The Roughriders, despite a slow offensive night, had a very balanced scoring attack with seven scorers total.
Besides Norberg, the scoring was mostly accounted for by Keenan Walker’s 10 points and Hayden McCartney’s nine.
Despite finishing on the losing end, King — who was in foul trouble for the majority of the game — finished with nine points.
Kelly also added a team-high 10 points for the Redskins.
As for the remaining of its regular-season schedule, Port Angeles traveled to North Kitsap on Tuesday (results not available by press time) and closes out the season at archrival Sequim on Tuesday in what very well could be a battle for second place in league.
Port Angeles 46,
Port Townsend 30
Port Townsend 8 12 8 2— 30
Port Angeles 12 10 8 15— 46
Individual scoring
Port Townsend (30)
Kelly 10, S. Coppenrath 4, King 9, Charlton 2, Spaltenstein 4, LeMaster 1.
Port Angeles (45)
Braithwaite 4, Walker 7, Burke 4, McCartney 9, Uvila 3, Elliott 4, Norberg 14.