The mood in Paski Gymnasium Friday nigh after the boys varsity basketball game was one of utter disbelief.
Students and fans wandered around the empty court afterward, talking about something — anything — other than what just happened, as the victorious Seattle Preparatory Panthers wasted no time in shaking hands and hitting the road, scurrying for their 9:45 p.m. ferry back home.
The Spartans were then finally forced to sit down and ask themselves: What just happened here?
What had just happened was in fact a stunning 52-51 last-second come-from-behind win by Prep in overtime, the second win in Paski for the visitors Friday (the girls varsity team also won against the Spartans in overtime earlier).
A lightning-quick three-pointer by Prep’s Jack Stewart in the last possible seconds of overtime clinched the win for Prep, ending an epic late-game run which saw them pull ahead, having been down nine points with scarcely 1:30 left to go.
It truly had been the Spartans’ game to lose from the start.
BHS led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter and dominated in the second, outscoring the visitors 19-7.
Leading 32-18 at the end of the half, the Spartans came back out to find their position was not as secure as they may have believed.
In the third, Prep managed to find its offense — and outscored BHS 10-7 — which would carry them through the rest of the game.
In the game’s final quarter, the Panthers literally doubled Bainbridge’s scoring efforts (24-12) and managed to even things up at 51-51 with less than 30 seconds to go.
The gymnasium erupted as the game entered OT, but the cheers from the Spartan side were to be short-lived because, then — for the second time in the game — the Panthers proved that every second really does count as they managed a last-second trey to claim the win.
Though the actual winning points came in the last possible seconds, Spartan Head Coach Scott Orness said that things had begun to go wrong for the Spartans even before that.
“I’m really looking at the last four minutes,” he explained. “We started playing just to hold on to the lead and not to win it, and against good teams, like Seattle Prep, they’re going to just keep pecking away.”
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Orness added. “I don’t know how many turnovers we had in the last four minutes, but it wasn’t good.”
The Spartan scoring machine had been led throughout the game by Blake Swanson, who managed 17 total.
Both Ben Beatie and Lyle Terry each scored eight points, Oskar Dieterich chipped in five and Trent Schulte finished the night with four.
The defeat was the Spartans’ second consecutive loss at home, following their disappointing game last Friday against Garfield High.
It was also the team’s last Friday night home game scheduled in this season.
The Spartans’ season record fell to 1-4 (0-4 in league play), earning them the 14th-place ranking in the Metro League.
Garfield High currently boasts the top spot in the league, with an overall record of 6-0.
Entering into what basically amounts to the midway point of the season, BHS is ranked ahead of both Chief Sealth and Nathan Hale (0-5 in league play, both).
If the Spartans hope to save their slowly sinking season, Orness explained, they would have to first of all settle down on the court and focus.
“We had to use half of each of our timeouts just settling our guys down,” he said. “We were really rattled and we can’t do that. We’ve got a veteran crew that understands that one or two mistakes might happen, but you can’t just let them keep happening. You’ve got to respond in a positive way.”
