Salo paces Spartans

The senior tallies 18 points Friday as Penny Gienger gets her 250th career win. SILVERDALE – It was her 250th win, but Bainbridge girls basketball head coach Penny Gienger didn’t celebrate much afterwards. “I haven’t really thought about it,” she said. “I guess that’s cool. It’s neat. I’m glad we got the win and we’re 2-0 to start the season, but I’m more concerned about my team.”

The senior tallies 18 points Friday as Penny Gienger gets her 250th career win.

SILVERDALE – It was her 250th win, but Bainbridge girls basketball head coach Penny Gienger didn’t celebrate much afterwards.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” she said. “I guess that’s cool. It’s neat. I’m glad we got the win and we’re 2-0 to start the season, but I’m more concerned about my team.”

The Spartans are still trying to find out about who they are after they opened the 2006-07 prep season with two wins against Ingraham 56-41 Friday in their home opener, then defeated Olympic 47-40 in a makeup game on Saturday at Olympic High School.

The Spartans, ranked fifth in the WashingtonPreps.com 3A state poll and sixth in the Seattle Times’ preseason poll, had both flashes of stellar play that was reminiscent of last season, but were also plagued by inconsistent stretches where they had trouble hitting their shots while allowing both teams to get back into it.

Against Olympic, the Spartans traded the lead with the Trojans for all of the first quarter.

Pepper Fauna put her team up by one with a jumpshot at the 4:52 mark in the second, but Brittany Gray scored eight points in the quarter while Emily Farrar hit two three-pointers to put Bainbridge up by 10 at the break.

Gray scored six more points in the third off some nice backdoor layups, but Shannon White and Kelsey Anchors combined to score six points to put Olympic down by eight going into the fourth.

White hit a three while Brittney Fry scored to close the gap to three with 6:42 left in the game, but Gray scored four points (she finished with 20 points for the game) while Lindsay Bratonia scored on a jumper and Farrar hit another three to give the Spartans the lead for good.

The Trojans had their chances, but only converted on one of five free throws in the last minute of the game.

“I tried to run some special plays for people to score when we needed to score, and I was lucky to do that and not lose the game,” Gienger said. “We tried to get some things going.”

Against Ingraham on Friday, the Spartans went on a 9-0 run thanks to Salo and her seven points, but the Rams rallied to pull within two.

The teams traded leads early, then Gray scored and was fouled.

She missed the free throw, but Megan Burris was there to gather the rebound and put the ball back in.

Gray and Salo scored four more points to keep the Spartans up by eight at the break.

Bainbridge kept it going in the third quarter, dominating in the paint while forcing Ingraham into numerous turnovers.

Anna Wood came off the bench to score five points while Salo scored four and Farrar hit another three on a Gray assist to put the Spartans up by 13.

The Rams never threatened after that, as Farrar scored six more points in the final quarter while Salo had three points.

“I thought we had a level of intensity (against Ingraham) that we didn’t have (against Olympic) and I don’t know why,” Gienger said. “We just have to bring our intensity up and get better and keep learning and figure out who’s going to do what, where and when.”

Farrar said they’re still working out the kinks, but she can see improvement in the team.

“It’s really hard getting in the groove practicing against each other for three weeks because of the snow days,” she said. “It’s hard to get that same game day intensity against each other, but we’re definitely on the uphill.”

Bainbridge plays West Seattle Friday at home at 8 p.m.