The Bainbridge boys battled back from an early 11-point deficit to defeat Cleveland for an 83-66 come-from-behind victory Tuesday.

The Spartans struggled offensively early on, falling behind 9-1 after three minutes of play. Senior Will DiIorio scored the Spartans’ first field goal – his first three-pointer of the night – with three minutes left in the first quarter.

Even though the Spartans committed seven first-quarter turnovers, they regrouped, scoring seven unanswered points to open the second quarter and cutting the lead to two after DiIorio came away with a steal, stuffing a one-handed dunk.

“Every single dunk came off of a steal,” head coach Steve Henderson said. “If we’re turning a steal into an easy bucket and a dunk, that keeps the energy level up, helps with our enthusiasm.”

DiIorio finished the night with a team-high five steals.

With three minutes left in the half, Rico Failla drilled a three-pointer to tie the game 22-22. The teams traded baskets to end the second quarter, and the Spartans trailed 31-30 going into the half.

“That speaks a lot to the leadership that we have with the seniors,” Henderson said. “Every game isn’t going to start out the way you want it to – there’s going to be runs both ways. They could have given up in the first quarter – they battled.”

During halftime, the team talked about “playing with some attitude,” Henderson said. The Spartans opened the second half with an 18-4 run.

Senior Ryan Burris scored three consecutive baskets from the paint for the 41-33 lead.

Chris Bell drained two three-pointers as Bainbridge outscored the Eagles 25-8 in the third.

“That’s the best defense we played in the entire game,” Henderson said. “It wasn’t necessarily good offense – it was a lot better defense turning it into easy baskets.”

With six minutes remaining in the game, Bell lobbed a pass to DiIorio for an alley-oop, bringing everyone to their feet.

“That’s just a small part of the game, but it’s nice to get those opportunities,” Henderson said.

Bainbridge also out-rebounded the Eagles 48-29, creating open lay-ups off the fast break.

“We want to take opportunities when they’re there,” Henderson said. “The focus the last week was to push the ball a little bit more and take advantage of some easy baskets.”

Bell finished the night with 16 points on six-for-10 shooting, while DiIorio scored 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting and added 17 rebounds. Burris had 17 points and 10 boards and Jimmy Baggett added six points and six assists.

With the win, Bainbridge improves to 4-3 in the Metro’s Sound Division (7-4 overall) and Cleveland falls to 1-6.

The Spartans face Nathan Hale (2-5 in the Metro, 5-5 overall) on the road at 6:15 p.m Friday.