The Bainbridge Spartans girls basketball (12-6, 10-2 in Olympic League) team cruised to an easy 60-36 road victory against Kingston (9-9, 5-7 OL) Jan. 30, keeping them a game back of first-place Port Angeles with just a few games left in the regular season.

“We’ve been studying a lot of film and kind of watching ourselves play and see[ing] the importance of getting the ball on the inside,” Bainbridge coach Zach Burnham said.

Both teams dealt with players being sick in the midst of flu season.

“We were trying to keep our energy up, but with people being sick, it was difficult to keep our stamina there,” Buccaneer Taizah Franklin said.

The Bucs and Spartans remained locked at four with four minutes remaining in the first quarter, with neither team able to find their offensive mojo for the first half of the first period.

But then the Spartans went on a 7-0 scoring run in the latter half of the first quarter, predominantly led by Spartans Anna Rowe and Ada Reitz.

The Bucs began to find their own offensive mojo after Franklin drilled a three-pointer, getting Kingston’s deficit back down to two possessions at 19-13 with 5:44 remaining in the second quarter.

Franklin put in a buzzer-beater layup to end the half, making the score 29-15. Rowe and Franklin led in scoring with 15 and 7, respectively.

“If we don’t box out every possession, it puts us at a disadvantage because we’re so small,” Kingston coach Charles Deam said. “We just give up so many extra offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities.”

The Bucs came out in the second half with a full-court press, but Bainbridge managed to get their lead out to 20 after Rowe converted a contested layup.

Bainbridge continued to build on their lead, converting on a majority of their field goal attempts and limiting Buccaneer scores. Rowe pushed Bainbridge’s lead to 28 with another up-close layup, getting her total out to 22 by the end of the third quarter.