Spartan boys can’t close in loss to Seattle Prep

Published 9:46 am Friday, January 9, 2009

The BHS boys basketball team came oh-so-close to making a statement against visiting Seattle Prep on Tuesday.

The Spartans led for nearly the entire game, but the Panthers scored seven unanswered points in the game’s final 48 seconds to emerge with a 53-49 victory. The loss dropped the Spartans to a record of 3-4 overall and a 2-2 in Metro League play.

While not quite the powerhouse of the Martell Webster-Spencer Hawes era (both of whom went on to the NBA), Prep appears to be the class of the Metro League’s Mountain Division. The Panthers’ only in-state loss was to Rainier Beach, and the Panthers had the added benefit of playing three games during the holiday break in a prestigious national tournament.

Things don’t get any easier for the Spartans as they visit Chief Sealth tonight in a Sound Division matchup. The Seahawks’ only loss thus far came in overtime in the championship game of a tournament in Idaho, and they carry a 3-0 Metro mark. For the Spartans, the key will be stopping Jason Kidd, the Metro League’s leading scorer at 24.3 points a game.

Against Prep, Ryan Burris – coming off a career-high 23 points against Issaquah on Saturday – scored the Spartans’ first eight points, then added a bank shot near the end of the first quarter to give Bainbridge a 13-8 lead at the end of the quarter.

Playing with a broken nose that required him to wear a facemask, Paul Weese gave the Spartans their biggest lead of the game at 18-10, when he drained a three-point shot at the 5:40 mark of the second quarter.

Prep narrowed the margin to 24-23 with a minute left, but Will DiIorio sank three free throws after a foul and resultant technical foul, then Weese fed Burris for a 29-23 lead.

A late Prep field goal made the halftime score 29-25. With 14 points, Burris had nearly half his team’s entire output.

Prep narrowed the margin to 35-33 halfway through the third quarter. Burris picked up his third and fourth fouls within a two-minute span and went to the bench. A DiIorio trey with 30 seconds remaining pushed the margin to five at 40-35.

DiIorio continued his hot hand in the final quarter, scoring all nine Spartan points. His two free throws pushed the Spartan lead to 46-42 with less than four minutes left, but a Prep three-pointer two minutes later made the score 46-45.

At that point Bainbridge went into a delay game, but the strategy backfired with a Prep steal less than a minute later. While Ben Eisenhardt appeared to cleanly block the layin, the referees thought otherwise. Prep sank one of two foul shots to tie the game at 46-46.

Triple-teamed near half-court, Burris managed to find DiIorio under the basket for a three-point play and a 49-46 edge.

Prep narrowed the margin to two on a free throw, then drained a trey after two missed Spartan free throws for a 50-49 lead. Free throws following errant Spartan three-point attempts led to the final margin.

Bainbridge, which shot 53 percent in the first half (10 of 19), cooled off in the second half and finished at 44 percent (16 of 36). Just 12 of 31 (39 percent) in the first half, Prep sank 9 of 20 in the second half to finish at 40 percent.

The Panthers dominated the glass, outrebounding Bainbridge 27-14 and getting numerous second- and third-chance shots.

Burris finished with 18 points and DiIorio had 17. Eisenhardt scored seven, Weese five and David Korsak two.

The Spartans lost to Issaquah 61-60 in overtime – their third this season – on Saturday. In addition to Burris’s 23 points, Eisenhardt had 13, DiIorio 10, Jimmy Baggett and Michael Stevenson six apiece, and Korsak two.