The Bainbridge girls scored win number seven Wednesday night, ambling their way through the best efforts of the visiting Nathan Hale Raiders to an easy, breezy 53-27 basketball victory.

Some slight back-and-forth in the initial moments of the matchup lit a fire under the Spartans (7-9 overall, 4-8 in league), and they quickly grabbed and held the lead.

The island team would remain ahead throughout the night, leaving the ragged Raiders (2-14, 1-10) to play catchup.

The guests led initially, 2-0 with about five minutes left of the first. But Bainbridge jumped ahead just seconds later — for keeps. They still led 14-8 with about a minute left in the quarter and entered the second up 17-8.

The slick Spartans finished the half ahead 28-10, and poured on the gas to grow the lead to 41-15 by the start of the final quarter.

Managing a bit of a dash in the fourth, the Raiders put up a flurry of late-game points, but it was to no avail by then and the outcome stayed secure.

Effortless as Wednesday’s win may have looked to the fans, BHS Head Coach Henry Guterson just laughed and said that appearances can be — and often are — deceiving, especially in basketball.

“There’s no such thing as an easy win,” he said. “In many ways, in every game you’re playing against yourself. You want to play well. We played well tonight and we can play well against anybody.”

This year’s Spartan squad is no stranger to struggle.

With only three games left on the regular season schedule, the team had been unable to string together any consecutive wins until besting the Raiders (on the heels of a 40-24 victory against Chief Sealth on Jan. 20).

It marked a bit of an occasion for the team, the coach said, but not one that anyone was taking much time to dwell on.

“Even if you don’t win some games you need to play well at every game, and we always have the capacity to do it,” he said. Managing an early lead, leaping ahead quickly in the first quarter, something the team has struggled with before, was a huge advantage against the Raiders, Guterson added.

“It’s always better to be ahead,” he said. “The earlier the better.

“It takes the pressure off a little bit. If you’re a team that is favored to win, the longer the other team stays in it the more tight you get as the favorite. You see it in the NCAA tournament all the time.”

After a schedule that was extremely heavy with road games early on, the currently ongoing streak of home turf contests seemed to be having the desired effects on the team: increased stability and confidence and an ease of play, all of which had been occasionally lacking in earlier outings, the coach said.

Though, he added, much of that was also a benefit of a more stable roster. The initial season was plagued with injuries and illness, to the detriment of the overall game plan.

“I run a very structured system and it makes it very difficult to have players gone,” he said. “When players are gone that means somebody else has to all of a sudden play a new spot.”

That’s not to say, of course, that the home court advantage wasn’t enjoyed.

“It’s certainly nice being at home, it’s just more comfortable,” Guterson said. “But it’s also a lot of mental stuff going on. If you can get past the mental part of it you should be able to play the same way on the road that you do at home.

“I think, mentally, players have to recognize that no matter where you’re playing, the hoop is still 10 feet tall, the floor is the same length, same width, and you have to come ready to play at home and away.”

With the end of the season looming, the coach and the team have begun to view things in a larger context.

The Spartans had improved most so far this season, Guterson said, in “executing plays, ball movement, a lot of little things on defense in terms of good help side defense, boxing out.

“A basketball game is really full of all these little things,” he said. “And the more you can get those little things working, the big picture becomes beautiful.”

The Spartans will attempt to snag their third straight win at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, again at home, against Holy Names Academy.

They will then travel for the final away game of the regular season, against Ingraham (2-13, 2-8), Wednesday, Feb. 1 and finally return home to finish the schedule at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 against Eastside Catholic (7-8, 5-7).

The coach was optimistic Wednesday night about the Spartan’s final outings and potential postseason games.

“We’re playing better and better every game, I think,” he said.