Tuesday’s stunning 76-71 defeat at West Seattle muddied the playoff picture for the Bainbridge boys’ basketball team.

Coupled with Chief Sealth’s win over Rainier Beach on the same evening, the Spartans’ loss made last night’s home game against Sealth crucial in terms of post-season seeding (see accompanying article).

“We came out flat and didn’t play well,” said coach Steve Henderson. “We might have overlooked them.”

The Spartans trailed 35-27 at the half and 57-43 after three quarters. At that point, “Will [DiIorio] took over for us. He had a big dunk that got us going.”

DiIorio scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the final quarter, including sinking four three-pointers. The Spartans closed to within three points with a minute and a half remaining but could get no closer.

The outcome was in stark contrast to the jubilation in Paski gymnasium on Friday when DiIorio’s NBA-range three-pointer with less than three seconds remaining gave the team a dramatic 55-52 overtime win over Rainier Beach. Hundreds of Spartan students rushed onto the court at the buzzer and several hoisted DiIorio onto their shoulders

“It was the biggest shot of my life, no doubt,” he said.

DiIorio wasn’t the only Spartan to sink a clutch trey. Paul Weese, whose three-pointer had knocked off Franklin 10 days earlier, hit a pair – one to force overtime, then another with time winding down in overtime to knot the score again and set the stage for DiIorio.

Those two baskets were Weese’s only points of the evening as he experienced a horrendous night up to that point, including shooting two airballs. The misses didn’t deter him. “I’m a shooter, so I gotta keep shooting,” he said.

In fact, he considered taking the final shot, but heeded coach Steve Henderson’s mantra to “pass up a good shot for a great one.” He said, “I saw Will, so I thought, ‘Why not pass to him?’”

The Spartans lost 84-39 to the Vikings in mid-December.

“We were scared,” Weese admitted. “It was ugly.”

But this time the Spartans held Beach scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the game. They built a 6-0 lead before the Vikings scored 11 unanswered points in two minutes. A DiIorio steal and layup narrowed the score to 11-8 at the end of the first quarter.

The Vikings scored two quick hoops to open the second quarter and quiet the Spartans’ rooting section, but three straight baskets capped by Ben Eisenhardt’s near-three pointer got the crowd back into the game. After a Beach trey, the Spartans went on an 8-0 run to go up 22-18. The Vikings responded with a 7-0 run. But three Spartan free throws – the last two by DiIorio with 1.4 seconds remaining – resulted in a 25-25 halftime score.

Beach opened the third quarter with yet another run, outscoring the Spartans 9-2 in the first two minutes and leading 42-34 edge at the buzzer. The Vikings still had a six-point lead with five and a half minutes remaining.

The Spartans rallied and closed to within a point at 46-45 on a Ryan Burris free throw with 1:43 remaining. Beach, which had already missed the front end of a one-and-one, did it again at 1:14 but controlled the rebound and scored. That set the stage for Weese’s first huge shot, which came with 35 seconds remaining. Beach worked the clock down and took a shot with two seconds left but missed. Eisenhardt cradled the rebound to send the game into overtime.

Both sides went scoreless for more than two minutes. Beach finally scored off a rebound but missed the accompanying free throw. Burris’ free throw narrowed the score to 50-49 with a minute and a half left but Beach drained two free throws at the one-minute mark.

Moments later Burris made one of the key plays of the game. DiIorio’s three-point attempt missed and Burris outleaped a Beach player to come down with the rebound. He immediately fired to Weese, who sank his second clutch shot with 40 seconds left.

This time Beach went for the basket with plenty of time left on the clock, but DiIorio blocked the attempt and the Spartans controlled the ball to set up his game-winner.

Burris had a game-high 21 points, while Eisenhardt added 13. DiIorio finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and four assists.