Boys hoopsters outgun O’Dea before a packed house at Paski.

Bainbridge boys basketball coach Scott Orness felt Tuesday’s game against third-ranked O’Dea was a “statement” game.

And he let his team know it – but not without some second thoughts.

“I kinda went out on a limb and told ’em I really felt this was a pivotal game,” Orness said. “Beating this team is going to help us a lot in Districts, and right after I said that I was thinking, ‘Gosh, what if we lose this game?’”

Ultimately, Orness was proven right, as the fifth-ranked Spartans defeated the Fighting Irish 53-45 on Senior Night in front of a vocal crowd at Paski Gymnasium.

Steven Gray led the team with 27 points on 11-for-16 shooting from the floor. He also contributed three steals and two blocks.

Gray said the key for the Spartans was to stick to their game plan and not make any radical changes based on their heartbreaking loss at O’Dea earlier in the month.

“Do what we do best,” Gray said. “That’s man-to-man defense, pushing the ball and executing our sets. We just needed to play like it was any other game.”

Bainbridge got off to a quick 6-0 lead behind Theo Miller, Chris Kelly and Gray, but O’Dea went on a 9-0 run to take the lead and was up by two after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, O’Dea pushed the lead to 20-13 before Miller and Gray combined on a 11-0 run to swing the score in favor of Bainbridge.

The third quarter saw both teams trade baskets through the period. O’Dea got several open shots thanks to their use of moving screens, while Bainbridge worked the ball inside and outside. Gray scored 11 points in the period, while Kelly had five.

“They try to lull you to sleep,” Kelly said of O’Dea’s offense. “That happened a few times in the second quarter, the third quarter. That’s the battle – you’ve got to stay awake, and they’re trying to lull you to sleep.”

Miller acknowledged they did struggle with the screens.

“Our coach warned us about moving screens, but you’ve just got to battle through and try to get them just as hard as they get you without getting a foul called,” he said.

After Peter O’Neil scored for the Irish, O’Dea was up 45-41, with 7:31 left to play and the tension in the gym was building.

Orness called a timeout to get his team to regroup.

“We needed to come together and make a decision on how we wanted to finish,” he said. “At that timeout, I felt as a team we really made a decision on what we wanted to do with the game.”

That decision was to rotate better on defense to pick up the player off the screen, which worked to perfection – O’Dea didn’t score the rest of the period.

The Spartans got some big offensive plays, with Gray scoring on a putback and getting fouled in the process, sending the Paski crowd into a frenzy.

Gray missed the free throw, but Coby Gibler grabbed the rebound and quickly dished it back to Gray, who hit the layin for a 49-45 lead with 2:09 to go.

That was all for O’Dea, as Michael Duty and Jamelle McMillan missed jumpshots in the last minute and a half – the Irish were 1 for 9 from the floor in the fourth – while Gray and Miller hit free throws to seal the game and send the students onto the court to celebrate.

Orness said he had “no idea” the Spartans shut down the Irish the way they did until he looked at the scorebook.

He also gave credit to his dad, Bruce, who handles the substitutions, and Stuart Mitchell, who contributed some ideas on defense.

Also key were Spartans Nick Fling and Austin Wood, who shut down O’Dea star Duty late in the game, while Kelly clamped down on the highly touted McMillan, son of NBA coach and former Sonics star Nate McMillan.

“I think he’s one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the state,” Orness said of Kelly. “One of the goals was to just wear (McMillan) out, and he had to work every second he was out there against Kelly. In the fourth quarter, you could see it: he didn’t have his legs for his shots and he wasn’t working as hard to try and get open.”

Gray felt that another key was giving Fling some of the point guard duties to keep Gray himself fresh late in the game – hence, 16 of his 27 points came in the second half.

“It’s been a big help,” Gray said. “And he’s doing a great job. It’s going to help us when we get in the playoffs.”

And that starts at home for the Metro League playoffs, as Bainbridge hosts the winner of the Eastside Catholic-Ingraham game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Paski Gymnasium.

Heading into the playoffs, the team is having a blast.

“I never had so much fun playing basketball in my life,” reserve Luca Fontana said.

The Spartans closed out regular season play Thursday at Bishop Blanchet, rallying late for an 62-50 win. Gibler had 13 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks. Gray had 12 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.