Sports Roundup - Girls hoopsters turn tables, crush Sealth/Eisenhardt has big night in win

The boys defeat a stubborn Seahawks team in the nightcap.

If there was any doubt that the Chief Sealth girls’ basketball team wasn’t the same squad of years past, it was cleared up Friday night against Bainbridge when Seahawks guard Charmaine Barlow took the ball on the inbounds pass, raced down the court and scored – but at the wrong end.

That one play summed up how the team is in their current state, with just three returners and a bunch of new faces that are still adjusting to varsity play.

Chief Sealth is also experiencing payback from those Metro League teams they dominated for years.

The Spartans were the latest team to do just that, crushing the Seahawks 64-42 to keep pace with Holy Names for third place in the Metro League Mountain Division.

But head coach Penny Gienger wasn’t thinking about getting revenge on the Seahawks, who were outed by a Seattle Times investigation for illegal recruiting and had their two state titles, two district titles and four seasons of wins revoked by the district and the WIAA.

“It’s so different now than they were last year,” she said. “The school’s suffering from what the coach (Ray Willis) did.

“I feel bad for them,” she continued. “It’s going to take a long time for that school to recover. It’s a really sad thing to do.”

“(But) I’m just worrying about my team now.”

Sealth recovered from its gaffe and kept things close in the first quarter, tying the game on three separate occasions with scores from Barlow and 6-2 post Cassie Fontenot despite being harassed by four defenders when she shot the ball.

But Bainbridge got a hot start from Brittany Gray, who scored 11 points in the first quarter.

In the second, the Spartans scored the first six points of the period, then caught a break when Fontenot was apparently called for two fouls in a row, putting her on the bench for most of the game.

Claire Thomas and Emily Farrar connected on both their free throws, with Farrar sinking a three ball on the subsequent inbounds pass.

Farrar connected on another three pointer later as the Spartans outscored them 24-5 to effectively end the game.

“We just needed a good, solid win,” Farrar said. “We needed to remind ourselves that we can score 60-70 points and do well.

“In games like this we get a lot of stuff worked on and practice a lot of stuff,” she continued. “This is the first time we’ve seen (a) zone (defense) all season, so we got to work on our zone offenses.”

Farrar led all scorers with 19 points and collected seven rebounds.

Gray finished with 15.

Up next for Bainbridge is a road game against Rainier Beach Wednesday, then a home contest Friday against Lakeside, who currently hold second place in the Mountain Division.

“It’s a tough week but I think it’s doable,” Gienger said of defeating the Vikings and the Lions. “We’re really going to have to pick our game up but I think it’s capable. It’s just a matter of getting it done.”

Farrar felt the same way.

“We’re definitely a different team than we were (earlier in the season) against Lakeside,” she said. “It’ll be nice to play Lakeside at home.”

Game time on Friday is at 8 p.m.

Eisenhardt has big night in win

It’s always nice to have a big man on your team.

Spartan post Ben Eisenhardt came through big Friday night with a career high 30 points in Bainbridge’s 63-45 win over a tough Chief Sealth squad for its sixth win in a row.

The win also keeps them tied for second with O’Dea and a game behind Seattle Prep for first place in the Mountain Division.

With three and four defenders swarming around him every time he had the ball, the 6-10 junior still got to the rim to score time and time again.

“It feels real good,” he said of the win streak. “Coach has said there’s been a few people in the basketball community that have come up to him and said they saw us at BCC (for the holiday tournament) and it looked like we didn’t know who we were.

“But we’re starting to figure that out now.”

Just like O’Dea, Bainbridge came out strong on defense from the opening tip and raced out to a 10-0 lead.

Eisenhardt scored the first four points while Mike Walsh added two and Caleb Davis hit both his free throws.

Jordan Kidd finally scored with 3:47 left in the game to put the Seahawks on the board, but Eisenhardt added four more points.

Jesse Powell hit a three early in the second to give the Spartans a 19-6 lead, but Sealth went on a 8-2 run to pull within seven points.

Eisenhardt connected at the foul line for four shots and Ryan Burris scored and was fouled (but missed the free throw) to put the Spartans up by nine at half.

In the third quarter, both teams went on a scoring binge as Sealth fought hard to cut into Bainbridge’s lead.

After a Patrick Lee three cut the lead to five, Bainbridge got a bucket from Davis, then four points from Eisenhardt as he scored on a putback, then made a layin on a nice pass from Nick Fling.

But Sealth still wouldn’t go away, cutting the lead to nine before Fling scored on another putback just before the buzzer to keep it at double digits.

“They’re real tough and athletic,” Eisenhardt said of Sealth. “No one in this league is going to go down quietly. You just have to be prepared for that every single game.”

The Spartans finally got a big enough cushion by opening the fourth with a 10-0 run.

Eisenhardt scored four points as did Davis, who converted two steals into buckets and Jimmy Baggett scored two.

Despite the nine points of Kidd, who finished with 27 – “I thought we did a good job on him for the most part but if you don’t get that hand up he’s going to score,” Eisenhardt said – Sealth couldn’t make another run as Bainbridge closed it out.

The Spartans played top ranked Rainier Beach yesterday, then take on Lakeside Friday at 6:15 p.m.

They’ll need both games to keep pace with O’Dea and Prep.

“We’re very confident,” Eisenhardt said. “We’ve shown we can play with anyone in Metro.”

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