Spartan girls come up short against visiting West Seattle

Published 10:06 am Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The Bainbridge High varsity girls basketball team suffered its second Friday night loss at home in as many weeks, this time at the hands of the West Seattle Wildcats on Jan. 15.

The final score was 78-41. The defeat brought the team’s overall season record to 3-8 (2-6 in conference), coming on the heels of a win over Nathan Hale earlier in the week. The BHS squad is ranked in sixth place in the Metro Mountain Division. Bishop Blanchet remains in the top spot with a perfect overall record of 14-0. West Seattle is the top-ranked team in the Sound Division bracket with an undefeated conference record of 9-0.

The Spartans were outscored in every quarter Friday except the second, in which they matched the Wildcats 13-13. In the first quarter the BHS squad trailed 21-8.

Entering the second half down 34-21, BHS suffered through their most disastrous quarter yet in the third and were outscored 28-7 before entering the final quarter down 62-28.

The fourth saw the Spartans finish strong — they were outscored by only three points — but remain unable to keep pace with the West Seattle team.

BHS junior guard and perennial points powerhouse Taylor Tye led the Spartans’ scoring effort and finished the game with 14 points. Paulina Bredy managed nine points and Grace Carson scored five.

Despite the loss, Tye said the team had many positives to take away from Friday’s game and that they all remained optimistic overall and excited to move forward in the season. Playing West Seattle was always going to be a challenge, she added.

“We knew they were a really good team, but we couldn’t dwell on that,” Tye said. “We had to just keep our heads up and keep our confidence up, and believe we can make it a game if we want to make it a game.”

The team had an obviously better showing in the first half, Tye explained, and said that consistency would remain a team goal going forward.

“I’m really proud of our first half game,” she said. “I think we’re doing good on focusing on the little things and getting better.”

Tye said that the team’s composure had come a long way from the season’s first games.

“I don’t feel like we were as freaked out,” she said. “I don’t think we wanted to give the ball up. We definitely were more controlled [and] we got better looks at the basket.

“I’m really proud that we just kind of calmed down a little bit and just weren’t so frantic,” she added.

With the addition of 16 points from the game against West Seattle, Tye brought her career total to 573 points so far, making her the 26th highest scoring athlete ever to play for the Bainbridge girls team.

She has a 13.8 points-per-game average.

Senior wing Katie Usellis (6.1 ppg) has managed 403 points in her career thus far, making her the 42nd best points earner in team history.

Brittany Gray (2005-2009) remains the all-time top scorer for the varsity girls basketball team, with a record of 1,668 points across her BHS career.