There are select few public places on Bainbridge where the law allows dogs to be unleashed.

It is a list which, apparently, includes Paski Gymnasium.

It was there late last week that the Spartans found themselves unable to control the Bulldogs, who proceeded to run amok both on the court and the scoreboard.

The boys varsity basketball team’s season record fell to 1-2 after coming up short in a 76-61 contest at home against the visiting team from Garfield High Friday.

It was the team’s first game at home this season.

Garfield scored first and led throughout the first quarter, setting a tone that would continue through much of the game as the Bainbridge squad struggled to find their groove.

Entering the second quarter down 25-10, BHS managed to keep pace with the Bulldogs throughout the quarter, which saw equal scoring efforts by both teams. The game entered its second half with Garfield ahead 40-25.

Bainbridge made some gains in the third, but it just wasn’t enough. In fact, it wasn’t until the final quarter that BHS managed to outscore their opponents (24-13).

By then, however, it was too little, too late.

The second and fourth quarter were obviously the best for BHS, Spartan Head Coach Scott Orness explained after the game.

“We did a lot of really good things in the second and the fourth,” he said.

“Our first and our third, I felt our defense was really lousy,” he added.

Offensively, BHS did see some significant contributions from several individuals.

BHS sophomore Lyle Terry was the Spartans’ offensive superstar, scoring 24 points throughout the game.

Oskar Dieterich managed 12 points, Trent Schulte chipped in seven and both Ben Beatie and Sawyer Conrad finished the game with four points each.

The Spartans entered the contest minus a few key players due to an illness which had been making the rounds through the roster, Orness explained.

That fact, added with an admittedly sloppy start, he said, did not set a positive stage for the Spartans going into the game.

“Our slow start is truly unacceptable,” Orness said. “We’ve got three or four guys that started last year every game — some of them have been starting since their sophomore year — and there’s no reason we [should] come out and make so many mental errors and force so many bad shots.”

“I give a lot of credit to Garfield,” he added. “They played great and they played steady, but I feel like we beat ourselves in the first quarter.”

Orness said that once the Spartans settled down and found their rhythm, it was easy to see that they were more than capable of keeping pace with the Bulldogs, that it was only consistency that was lacking in Friday’s contest.

It’s worth noting, however, that the most impressive Spartan performances of the evening did not come from the usual standout names.

“The guys that I’m really proud of that went out there are my young guys; my sophomores and my junior,” Orness said of Terry, Conrad, Brendan Burke and Blake Bieber. “They went out there and made a strong case for themselves that they should get more playing time.”

The starting players on the court would be decided by performance, Orness said, and no Spartan was guaranteed court time by their senior status.

“Sawyer Conrad just went in there and made things happen,” he said. “He’s been a kid we’ve been swinging JV for the last two games and he had a game for himself that’s going to make my job as a coach tough, which is a good thing.”

Though their starting roster may change, the coming BHS schedule is set.