Taylor Tye’s got a fever, and the only prescription is more three-pointers.
The Bainbridge High School sophomore guard led the girls varsity basketball team to a late-game 52-50 victory over the visiting Chief Sealth Seahawks Wednesday night, going eight-for-10 behind the arc and setting a new school record.
It was an impressive performance by any standard, made even more so by Tye’s admitted sick condition that night.
“Last night she had a fever — she texted me at 8 or so — and had a fever of 100.5,” said Spartan Head Coach Nicole Hebner after the game. “I sent her a message [Wednesday] at about noon and said, ‘How you feeling?’ She said, ‘Nasty,’ with a little emoty sad face.”
Tye toughed it out and the rest of the team showed no sign of quitting, despite a bleak start to the game.
Chief Sealth scored first and kept a healthy lead until the Spartans got a go-ahead bucket to make it 43-41 with just over four minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
It was quite a comeback for a team that had trailed 26-17 at the end of the first half.
“We came out in the second half and I told them I didn’t have anything else really to say to them,” Hebner explained. “We’ve talked and talked and talked and talked, and we have to start playing basketball.”
“There’s not much you can do on the sidelines, and they have to perform on the court,” she added.
Spartan senior Paige Brigham coordinated much of the on-court action, even adding a critical late-game three-pointer of her own to the board.
“That was big,” Hebner said of Brigham’s point parade. “There’s no one else I feel more comfortable with, with a ball in their hands in a crunch-time situation, than Paige.”
“Paige is probably the most athletic, confident —‚ not in a bad way, but confident — player that I’ve ever coached,” Hebner added.
All in all, Hebner said it was a great team effort and an excellent example of the Spartans’ never-say-die attitude, as well as a much needed morale booster after a disappointing show on the road Friday.
“I thought everyone contributed,” Hebner said. “It was a collective team effort. I mean, Taylor’s not getting those shots if we don’t make the passes.”
