The Wildcats outlasted Bainbridge 62-50 in boys basketball after a big second half Saturday, Jan. 18 at Paski Gymnasium.

West Seattle led 22-17 at the end of the first quarter, but Bainbridge pulled to within three points, 31-29, by halftime.

The Wildcats held the Spartans to single-digit scoring in the third, however, and just nine points. West Seattle poured it on in the fourth and outscored BHS 20-12 for the upset win.

“We wanted to find out how tough we were and I think this game showed us we’ve got a long way to go,” said Spartan Head Coach Scott Orness. “There are certain teams you’ve got to beat in this league, and there’s no nights off,” he added. “You know a team like West Seattle, who I think is a good team and well-coached, but we’ve got to learn to show up as if it’s Rainier Beach, Seattle Prep or O’Dea – teams with the big names. We’ve got a tendency to fluff off against the teams that we should beat.”

The top Bainbridge performers of the night included some familiar names.

Trent Schulte led Bainbridge with 16 points.

Joey Blacker and Oskar Dieterich chipped in nine points each for BHS. Others scoring for the Spartans were Riley Irish (six points), Lyle Terry (five), Blake Swanson (three) and Ben Beatie (two).

Orness said that the Spartans lost the game because they were simply outplayed that night.

“I give all credit to West Seattle,” Orness said. “They came in here expecting to win and they did so.”

“We’ve got a lot to learn from this game,” the Spartan coach said. “I thought it was one of our lowest performances of the year in a lot of ways. I thought we hung our heads, even starting in the first half. I felt our bigs never really got going. I felt that we missed easy buckets, which is a lack of concentration. If we’re going to let fatigue like that get in our heads, then we’re not going to go to the places we want to go this year.”