Spartans never get out of first gear, drop 3A title game to O’Dea.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON – The dream season of the Bainbridge boys basketball team is over, with the Spartans left holding the second-place trophy instead of the big gold one.

That one went to the O’Dea Fighting Irish, who took control from the get-go in a 56-31 win over the Spartans in the 3A state championship game Saturday night on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

The win earned O’Dea their third state title in four years and fifth title overall, one more than the four state titles held by Rainier Beach. It also makes it the first time a 4A or 3A team has won three titles in four years.

The loss, just the fourth for the Spartans this year, set a new record for the lowest score in a 3A championship game, previously held by Cheney in a 39-32 loss to Timberline in the 1980 championship game.

Bainbridge finished the season at 25 wins, four losses.

“After the game it wasn’t as much the loss, it was the fact that the season was over,” Spartan star Steven Gray said Monday, reflecting on the defeat.

As the Spartan faithful chanted “What a season!” the team took their second place trophy with tears of sadness.

“You spend that much time with a group of guys and then that’s it,” Gray said. “That’s the end. It’s tough.

“But it’s not really the end of anything. We still hang out. We still see each other. It’s just – that part of our relationship is done.”

Semifinal win

The Spartans got to the championship game with a 55-40 win over North Central of Spokane Friday in the semifinal contest.

Bainbridge put the hammer down from the opening tip. Coby Gibler tapped the ball to Austin Wood, who threw to a streaking Gray for the two-hand jam to pop the Spartan fans and get things going.

Gibler scored four points inside off nice passes from Nick Fling and Caleb Davis. Davis followed with a three and Gray hit another jumper.

The Indians were stymied by Gibler inside – he blocked two different Indian players twice in succession – and their own poor shooting, going just 2 of 23 for the first half.

Bainbridge pushed the lead to 17-0 before North Central’s Justin Anderson split his foul shots and Boone Plager sank a three to get on the board.

In the second quarter, Bainbridge continued to dominate. Rudy Sharar made North Central’s life miserable, hitting a three and running around the court grabbing rebounds, making blocks and defending everyone in sight.

“Everybody that came in was doing their role,” Sharar said Friday. “Hitting shots, getting rebounds, playing good defense. Every player in there was doing the best they could.”

That included Davis, who was three of four from behind the arc and scored 11 points for the contest.

When he knocked down his third three of the game, Bainbridge had a comfortable lead at 42-15 with four minutes left in the third, seemingly ensuring a win and letting the reserves play some solid minutes.

But the Indians didn’t quit. Nick Rijon hit two three-pointers as the Indians went on a 20-2 run in the fourth to close the gap substantially.

Sharar said North Central, who took home the third-place trophy with a win over Southridge, deserved more praise than they got.

“I give them a lot of credit,” he said. “To be down 30 and come out and play as hard as they did, we admire and respect that. We respect every opponent.”

Orness had enough respect to put his starters in to run out the clock and send them to the title game.

“You gotta hand it to North Central,” he said. “They really came back hard. We had to go back to the starters because we weren’t going to take a risk and not be playing in the state championship game.”

Final letdown

With three wins over O’Dea under their belt during the season and the district playoffs, the Spartans appeared ready for the biggest game of the season.

“I guess this is the way it was destined to be,” Sharar said before the contest. “It’s nice to have three, but those wins mean nothing now. It’s all about this game. That’s all anyone will remember.”

Bainbridge got an opening score from Gray on one of his patented one-hand jumpers in the lane.

But the Spartans didn’t get another score until the second quarter when Gray split a pair of free throws at the 7:02 mark and Gibler put in a layup and was fouled 30 seconds later, but missed the free throw.

Gray said the tournament schedule – playing four games in four days, all at 9 p.m. – wasn’t much of a factor for the team, as they’ve done it before,

But playing in a game of that magnitude, he admitted, made them a little apprehensive.

“We kinda knew what to expect,” he said. “But once you’re at state, it’s a lot different. They’ve been there. It’s their fourth time playing for the state championship. They came in knowing what to expect. We came in not knowing what to expect. We’re a little nervous, but we’re excited.

“It was a mix of not really knowing what to expect and the inexperience.”

The Irish started out strong, a stark difference from the last three times these two teams met when the Spartans got hot early.

Kelly Edwards hit a three, then Ellis Pressley-Whitman scored with Jamelle McMillan and Josh Scott to get out to a 9-2 lead.

As O’Dea was working the ball around and getting baskets from inside and out, Bainbridge couldn’t get a shot to drop.

The Spartans shot just 4 of 16 for the first half and 36 percent for the game, going 1 of 9 from beyond the arc and 4 of 14 from the free throw line – an Achilles heel for them all season.

Most notable was Gray’s missed reverse layup off a nice pass from Austin Wood that danced on the rim for a bounce or two, then dropped out.

Orness said his dad, assistant coach Bruce Orness, thought the team played fine, but couldn’t get their shots to drop.

“If some of those shots go down, then we can start relaxing a bit,” he said Monday.

But they didn’t, and O’Dea increased their lead to double digits at the end of one, and pushed the score to 28-11. Davis hit a three, but that was one of the few bright spots for the Spartans.

“That slow start just killed us,” Gray said. “If we get some of those baskets to fall, we can get something going. You get a little more confidence and you realize you’re out there just playing basketball.

“It would have been a lot closer if we had gotten some of those early baskets.”

It didn’t get any closer in the third. Wood grabbed an offensive rebound from Gibler’s missed free throw and scored on the putback, but O’Dea kept control of the ball as Scott scored five points, completing a three-point play to push the lead to 35-13 with 4:57 left.

Then, O’Dea went through a scary moment when Banchero and Davis’ heads collided and Banchero went down. He was down for a few moments, but conscious, and was able to walk to the bench.

The extended time out seemed to shake Bainbridge awake, as they went on a 6-2 run.

Gray came back with a steal leading to a fast break score, then forced a steal and another layin, then got another score with a steal and a two-hand jam, sending the Bainbridge faithful into hysterics and giving them some hope for a miracle.

“We knew it would be really tough,” Gray said. “There was a slight chance that we could come back, but when you’re down by this many points, not much else can go wrong. Just go out and enjoy the last little bit.”

There wasn’t much to enjoy as O’Dea ran their stall offense and scored at the free throw line – they were 18 of 21 for the game.

Gray got to throw it down one last time and Wood scored the final bucket of the season.

The loss moves Bainbridge’s record to 1-3 all time in championship games.

Despite the blowout, they still got love from their fans.

The student section was arguably the biggest of all the teams in the tournament. They took up their allotted space and then some behind the Spartans bench and basket, and they didn’t stop making noise the entire way.

Many fans had arrived hours earlier, even with a security delay at the ferry terminal.

The attendance for the game was 6,972 – many of whom were Bainbridge supporters.

“It was ridiculous,” Gray said of their raucous fans. “Just to see them cheering the way they did when we were down 20 and behind you after every play, every basket. Even on the ferry ride home, everyone was celebrating. To have the community come together in support of us, it was nice.”

Gray and Gibler didn’t go home empty handed, as they were named to the 3A all-tournament first team. Gray was named the tournament’s MVP.

“Just to see Coby get that first team (selection), that’s huge,” he said. “Coby’s been big for us this entire playoff run. He stepped up… Especially in this late stretch, he stepped up big.”

Gray said the Spartans can’t let one game define what they accomplished – the three wins over O’Dea and winning two titles – for an entire season.

“I don’t think you can base just that one game, even if it is the state championship game, you can’t base the success of our season on that one game,” he said. “We proved a lot to people.”

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Tourney recap

• Bainbridge 63, North Thurston 29: Sparts hold Rams to zero points in the first half, the first time that’s ever happened in tournament and arena history.

• Bainbridge 64, Bellevue 54: Spartans come from behind with 17-2 third quarter to defeat Wolverines who start two sons of former NBA players.

• Bainbridge 55, North Central 40: Spartans take care of Cinderella team with 15-0 run to start the game, never look back.

• O’Dea 56, Bainbridge 31: O’Dea goes on 16-2 run to open the contest as Spartans set record for lowest point total in a championship game.