Four players score in double figures as BHS makes it to State after 9 years.

BELLEVUE – After months of speculation, anticipation, dreaming, hoping, wishing and lots and lots of practice, the Bainbridge boys basketball team has achieved their goal of making it to the 3A state tournament.

The top-ranked Spartans defeated the Cleveland Eagles 73-49 Friday afternoon in a 3A Sea-King District quarterfinal game to be among the field of the top 16 3A teams in the state for the tournament next week.

The win was their 20th of the year.

The last time Bainbridge played at State was back in 1998, when they were in the old Olympic League and went 20-5 for the season before going two and out to current Metro League rival O’Dea and Burlington-Edison at the now demolished Kingdome.

“I’m just proud of our guys,” head coach Scott Orness said outside a happy locker room. “These guys deserve it. They really do.

“They put so much time in that I felt no matter how close the game was, these guys really deserved to get in (to State).”

Senior sixth man Rudy Sharar, who got just his second start of the year, was ecstatic over the win.

“It feels amazing,” he said. “I can’t even describe it.”

Senior co-captain Steven Gray said he felt a big sense of relief.

“We saw what happened to (Rainier) Beach so coming into the game we were kinda worried,” he said, referring to the Vikings’ come from ahead loss to Seattle Prep in the other district quarterfinal. “(But the win) takes a big weight off our shoulders.

The Spartans and Eagles traded baskets in the opening minutes of the game before Coby Gibler scored four points and Caleb Davis hit a three-pointer to put Bainbridge up 11-4.

After Sharar scored to make it 15-7 early in the second quarter, Cleveland went on a quick 6-0 run to close the gap to two points.

But Sharar scored four points and Davis hit another three as part of a 12-4 run to the end of the second quarter.

Gibler scored inside again while Nick Fling split a pair of foul shots and Steven Gray scored his first points of the game on a jumper that came just before the halftime buzzer.

The bucket put Bainbridge up by ten.

“It’s huge for us,” Gray said of his guards’ first-half performance, as Davis had 10 points while Sharar scored six.

“It gets their confidence going and it makes my life a lot easier knowing I can rely on these guys. It really helps the team so much.

“More importantly, (we needed) to get Coby involved,” Gray continued. “If we can get him going, it’s going to open everything else up.”

That included Gray, and that meant the third quarter belonged to the Spartans.

Gray got things going with a putback of a miss over two Eagles defenders, then after Jayovonni Spears scored, he came back and drained a three.

Hilton Horne scored for Cleveland, but Austin Wood scored down low, then Gray and Gibler had putbacks off of missed Bainbridge shots.

Gibler converted on a three-point play after he was fouled on another putback, then Ben Eisenhardt scored inside off an assist from Gray.

The senior guard hit another three-ball, then Wood put in another two points down low to take a 48-22 lead.

The score punctuated a 21-5 run that essentially put the game out of reach.

“We talked to Steven and we wanted him to get going,” Orness said. “We wanted him to get on the glass and attack the basket. He did just that.”

Cleveland went on a 7-0 run to end the third, but in the fourth quarter, Davis converted a pair of foul shots, then after Gray grabbed a rebound, he was pressured by two Cleveland defenders into a corner of the court.

Somehow, he managed to jump up and throw a cross-court pass on target to Gibler who threw down a two-hand jam.

That put the punctuation mark on the game, as Bainbridge traded baskets with Cleveland the rest of the way.

Gray said the extra day of practice helped get their offense back on track.

Originally, the team would have taken Sunday and Monday off after their Metro championship game against Beach last Saturday, but their poor performance meant they would come in the gym on that Monday ready to work.

“We learned from the loss,” he said. “We started at ground zero” and relearned their offense.

“(It was) just like the first day of practice. We cleaned up all our offense(ive sets) and making sure we were focused on the task at hand. I think it paid off.”

Orness said that practice on Monday was key for what type of mental state they would be in for the week.

“I was real curious what their attitudes were going to be like that first practice back,” he said. “They came back with a lot of enthusiasm and they were ready to go. I could tell that in the first five minutes.”

Bainbridge played Bellevue last night.

If they won, they play the winner of O’Dea-Seattle Prep at 6 p.m. Saturday at BCC for the district title.

If they lost, they play the loser of that game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday to determine the third seed.