PASKI GYMNASIUM – The Bainbridge High varsity girls basketball game hosted Bishop Blanchet, one of the top 3A teams in the state, this week and kept pace with the league contenders for much of the game.

The Braves lived up to their reputation, though, and finished in front, 78-43.

Bainbridge senior guard Maddie Ketcheside scored the first point of the game, putting the Spartans ahead initially. It was, however, a brief victory as the visitors from Blanchet quickly proceeded to pull away.

Spartan Head Coach Nicole Hebner said that the game was strategically a success for the still relatively untested team.

“I think that we’ve come a long way,” Hebner said. “That’s the fourth-ranked team in the state, and we competed with them for the most part. We had stretches where we kind of went flat and they went on a run, and that’s what basketball is. It’s a game of runs.”

Ketcheside was the top BHS points earner for the game, and racked up a total of 17.

Freshman guard Taylor Tye scored 10 points, while sophomore post Rosie Brown managed nine.

“We’ve got to be able to recognize that you can’t be flat,” Hebner said when discussing the team’s strategy moving forward. “We’ve got to play the entire 32 minutes.”

“Down the stretch I think we’ll be just fine,” she said.

The Spartans are currently in second place in the Metro’s Sound Division with a conference record of 4-3 (5-4 overall).

West Seattle is ranked first with an overall season record of 9-3.

BHS hit the road again to play Seattle Preparatory Friday and came home Saturday, Jan. 18 to face West Seattle.

“I would say that the energy coming into tonight was phenomenal,” Hebner said on Wednesday. “We were the most composed for 32 minutes that we have been all season long – they’re interacting with each other, they’re smiling, they’re hustling, they’re trying to play as a group. We’re just going to get better.”