PACIFICA, CA – Half Moon Bay High basketball coach Rich Forslund didn’t want a repeat of last year.
He didn’t get one as his Cougars defeated rival host Terra Nova 66-29 Friday ngith as Forslund earned his 400th career victory. The bulk of the wins have come at Half Moon Bay and Archbishop Riordan, but also at Burlingame and Lowell, earlier in Forslund's 21-year career as a head coach.
After the game Forslund was congratulated by his assistants and then by Terra Nova High star Jared Milch, Jared's coaching father Kenny Milch and the rest of the Tigers who endured a tough senior night loss before a big crowd.
"The Cougars played nearly a flawless game at both ends,” Kenny Milch said. “Rich had ‘em ready to go. I told (Forslund) ‘Congratulations -- great job tonight’ and that he's done a fabulous job this year.”
Typically, Forslund was not completely satisfied with the effort.
“Kenny was very kind and he thought we played fabulous,” Forslund said. “I thought we were a bit sloppy, to be honest.”
Forslund’s quibbling aside, Half Moon Bay’s effort was a departure from last season when TN upset the Cougars at home on a buzzer-beating 3-point shot. The setback made the Coastside teams PAL-North co-champions.
Half Moon Bay (23-1, 12-0) was in no danger of such an upset this season, racing to a 15-0 lead before TN sank a 3-pointer with 1:09 left in the first quarter for its first points. Tommy Nuno had six of those 15 points for the Cougars.
“We wanted to get that 400th win and we wanted revenge for last year when they beat us at our house,” said Nuno who finished with 10 points, all in the first half.
Terra Nova trailed by only 17-6 after one quarter but got out-scored 14-4 in the second quarter as the Cougars built an insurmountable lead. Half Moon Bay's man defense shut down the high-scoring Jared Milch as TN was forced into a succession of turnovers and long-range misses.
Senior 6-foot-7 center Austin Hilton led Half Moon Bay with 15 points to back Nuno’s 10. Also for HMB, Andrew Saffold had nine points, Ethan Menzies seven and Jake Salinero six.
Nobody scored more than six points for Terra Nova (11-12, 5-7).
The win was Half Moon Bay’s 14th in a row and sends the Cougars with plenty of momentum into the Peninsula Athleltic League Tournament which begins Wednesday. The Cougars will host Sequoia at 7 p.m.
“I think we’re pretty confident,” Nuno said. “We’ve been playing better basketball. We started off league a little shaky and then we picked things up so I think we’re good.”
