Spartans score 56-39 win against Cleveland Eagles

A strong start led to a middling middle and a hurried climax in Paski Gymnasium Tuesday, Dec. 11, as the Bainbridge High School varsity boys basketball team battled to a sloppy success against the visitors from Cleveland High.

The final buzzer saw the Spartans up 56-39.

It was their first league win of the season and bumped the team’s record to 1-3 (3-4 overall), tied for sixth place in the Metro standings, alongside Seattle Prep, Ballard and Chief Sealth. The loss leveled Cleveland’s league record to 2-2 (3-2 overall).

The win came on the heels of two consecutive road losses, and hopefully, BHS Head Coach Steve Haizlip said, marked something of a turning point for the struggling Spartans.

“We’re in a little slump and that happens,” he said. “It happens when offensively we don’t shoot that well.

“I would say we haven’t played our best basketball,” the coach said. “We haven’t shot very well, we were a little sloppy. But what we’ve noticed is that we are consistently working hard at defending — and that’s huge.”

The Spartans scored first (with about six minutes left in the first quarter) and were the only name on the board for a bit — though Cleveland did manage to put up some points with slightly more than a minute left, so as to not enter the second scoreless.

Entering the second up 11-7, Bainbridge poured on the gas and pulled ahead to lead 27-19 by the end of the half.

The third saw the Eagles on a run, chipping away at the island squad’s lead, and the game entered the final quarter with the Spartans up 35-27.

The fourth was more even yet again, with the visitors finding their footing and leaning hard on a few powerhouse players, and if the game went five quarters it might have been enough to wrench victory from the jaws of defeat.

Instead, the Spartans held tightly enough to the lead throughout the later minutes of the game and emerged victorious.

It was a battle to the buzzer, Haizlip said.

“Today we struggled, I would say, offensively,” he said. “We feel good about being able to stay in games and being in games. When we are playing offensively, I think is when we’re struggling.”

Foul trouble also plagued the Spartans Tuesday, with at least two players — Merritt McMahon and Spencer Nicholas — forced to sit out most of the third quarter.

“We got sloppy,” Haizlip said. “We were shooting bad, too; we got great looks. But when we started getting to the free-throw line is when we increased our lead.”

The coach praised the Eagles as well, saying the lessons learned during the hard-won win were a gift for the Spartans at this point in the season.

“That team’s 3-1; beat Garfield and Nathan Hale,” he said. “It’s not like they’re a bad team. So, for us we’ve just got to build on these positives that we take from the game.”

Examining the scores, Haizlip said though the Spartans had lost more than they’d won so far, the actual numbers paint a picture worth getting excited about — after a bit of fine-tuning, that is.

“We’re eight points from being 5-2, not that I like moral victories,” he said. “But we had two games where we just didn’t finish. We feel really good as coaches; we just got to tighten things up.”

The Spartans next play at home at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18 against Seattle Prep.