Sports Roundup — Girls head east, rout Eastside/Boys win despite turnover spate/Swimmers get ready for Metro

Published 10:00 am Saturday, January 28, 2006

Girls head east, rout Eastside

In a game, things can go from bad to good in an instant.

For the Bainbridge girls basketball team, that happened on Wednesday night against Eastside Catholic.

“When we started out, it was pretty close,” said head coach Penny Gienger. “It was 11-9 (Bainbridge) and next thing I know, I look up and it’s 41-9.”

The Spartans cruised the rest of the way, defeating the Crusaders on the road 81-29. It’s the first time they’ve scored 80 this season.

“Everything clicked all of a sudden and we just went off,” Gienger said. “It was a good game for us. We played well. Everyone got to play and get good minutes.”

Good passing was one of the keys for the Spartans, as they had 23 assists for the game.

“We’re finding open people and making really nice plays,” Gienger said. “Everybody’s not afraid to give up the ball to somebody else.”

But she also felt they moved the ball around too much without taking a shot when they were open.

“It’s a nice problem to have sometimes,” she said. “But I think we pass the ball really well.”

They also created turnovers, 26 to be exact. Fifteen of those came off steals.

Gienger hopes they’ll keep improving as a unit as the playoffs draw near.

“We really want to be a force when we get to the playoffs,” she said. “We’re working on a lot of things. We want to be a better rebounding team, we want to take care of the ball better. We definitely haven’t stopped learning.”

Brittany Gray scored 21 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, while Allie Picha scored 11 points and had six rebounds and five assists.

Bainbridge played at Lakeside yesterday. They return home for their last game against Holy Names at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and wrap up the season at Bishop Blanchet on Thursday.

Boys win despite turnover spate

Last year, the Bainbridge boys had to take the long way around to get to Eastside Catholic, thanks to a bomb threat at the ferry terminal.

This year, they made it on time and won the game 77-67 over the Crusaders Tuesday night.

The Spartans won despite turning the ball over 23 times, allowing the Crusaders to grab 13 offensive rebounds and only shooting 65 percent from the free throw line. Head coach Scott Orness said that’s indicative of their past trips to the high school.

“Eastside Catholic is always a tough place to play (at),” he said. “They play really well at home and we knew we were going to get their best shot.”

Up by only five at the break, Orness had a few words for his players back in the locker room.

“We got chewed out pretty good at halftime, but we responded in the second half,” forward Theo Miller said.

They did that by shooting well from the floor (51 percent for the game) and outrebounding Eastside Catholic 42-25 for the game.

The win helps widen their lead over the Crusaders in the Mountain Division with just two games to go, albeit some big ones as O’Dea comes to town next Tuesday and the Spartans travel to Bishop Blanchet next Thursday.

Orness said Nick Fling will get some minutes at the point guard position, as he wants Steven Gray to not feel overburdened.

“He’s doing a little too much for us with bringing the ball up the floor, working to get open,” he said. “If we’re going to beat good schools, Steven’s going to have to work without the ball more.”

He also wants his “bigs” – Miller and Coby Gibler – to have big games.

Miller feels he, the other captains and the team are up to the task.

“We’ve got to keep everyone focused,” he said. “It’s getting down to crunch time, and postseason is right around the corner, so we’ve got to win these last couple of games.”

Gray scored 27 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Miller had 12 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.

Gibler scored 12 points and had 10 rebounds, while Fling had nine points, four assists and three steals.

The Spartans played Lakeside yesterday. Their last home game is against O’Dea at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Swimmers get ready for Metro

Bainbridge head swim coach Kaycee Taylor is keeping his team at ease before the big postseason push.

“Everyone’s so tired,” he said. “They can’t think about swimming another lap, so we’re mixing it up a bit. Practices are getting easier, and now they’ve got so much energy they don’t even know what to do with it, which is great. That’s what we want when it comes to championship time. Hopefully, it pays off.”

The Spartans defeated Sequim 132-45 in their last meet of the season.

Austin Hallett scored state times of 1:58.56 in the 200-yard individual medley and 54.35 in the 100 backstroke.

Jon Swanson, Andrew Stewart, Clif McKenzie, Tamas Torok, Adrian Mason and Cooper Ashley all scored district times as well.

Taylor said he’ll be taking “90-plus percent” to Metro and districts, which has never happened in his tenure at BHS.

“It’ll help us in overall scoring,” he said.

Another focus is to qualify all the relays, notably the 400 free relay, for state so they can decide which relays to keep to have the best chance to score points.

The Spartans participate in an all-comers meet today, while Olaf Olsen tries to qualify for State at a dive meet at Juanita High School.

The Metro Championship meet is at Madison Pool near Ingraham Feb. 3-4, with the district meet to be held at the University of Washington pool Feb. 9-10. The State meet is Feb. 17-18 at KCAC.