The Spartan girls basketball team cruised to the White River Christmas Classic title Tuesday evening with a convincing 66-54 victory over host White River.

Bainbridge earned a shot at the holiday tournament title by knocking off South Puget Sound League AAAA Bethel on Monday night.

Senior Alice Russell led Bainbridge with 19 points on Tuesday, and the Spartans had four players scoring in double figures. Allie Picha and Haley Wiggins tallied 12 points each for the Spartans and Morgan Zajonc added 11.

“We’re averaging about three people in double figures (per game),” Bainbridge coach Penny Gienger said. “When you can get four, that’s good.”

Gienger said while opposing teams have a tendency to focus on Russell, having a whole corps of scoring threats wreaks havoc with opponents’ defensive strategies.

According to Gienger, both Bethel and White River feature pressing defenses. However, after Bethel tried to open up with a full court press against the Spartans, they found themselves quickly trailing Bainbridge by 13 points in the first quarter.

White River heeded the Bethel experience and tried to cover the Spartans with a half-court zone.

The well-balanced Bainbridge attack pushed the Spartans up by 20 before the Hornets knew what hit them.

Bainbridge led 38-26 at the half, and 56-34 at the end of three quarters.

“We played pretty good defense,” Gienger said. “We shut ‘em down.

“We’re starting to play pretty well,” the coach added, “and we’re rested.”

The Sparts will need that rest as league play intensity ratchets up next week.

Bainbridge will be at Eastside Catholic on Wednesday night, and are back on the home court Friday night against last year’s state championship runner-up Seattle Prep.

The girls varsity contest against Prep is scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m. at Paski Gymnasium – followed by the varsity Spartan boys at 8 p.m.