The boys down Bellevue to stay alive.

The Bainbridge boys basketball team is living on the edge these days.

The Spartans’ 76-74 win over Bellevue in 3A Sea-King District play Tuesday was their third straight playoff game decided by three points or fewer. Junior guard Steven Gray said the slow start didn’t help.

“We had a couple of lapses where we turned the ball over,” he said. “We weren’t playing real smart. We basically made it close ourselves.”

Bainbridge was up by just five after the first and one at halftime.

Orness acknowledged another problem was offensive rebounding.

“We’re one of the biggest teams around,” he said. “We just have to have the desire to block out and go get the ball. We’re not going to win many more games if we turn the ball over like we did and give up so many offensive rebounds.”

The Spartans switched to a trapping defense and slowed down the Wolverines offense in the second half, while Gray scored 18 points and the team hit several critical foul shots in the fourth.

With the win, the Spartans move into the double-elimination portion of the bracket.

They played Seattle Prep yesterday at Bellevue Community College, with their next game likely on Tuesday.