“Because of a game-day problem, some of the Port Angeles High School gymnasium lights were at their usual brightness Friday evening, while others were noticeably dimmer. One basket was bathed in intense light, while the other sat almost in shadow, and other parts of the court had different degrees of illumination.The lighting served as a symbol for the game itself, as the Roughriders played with an incandescent attitude in downing the Spartan girls’ basketball team, 62-45.With the support of a nearly full house, Port Angeles worked their offense effectively while a tight defense never let the Spartans get into any kind of a rhythm.The point total was 20 points below Bainbridge’s season average, and the ‘Riders avenged their only defeat this season, a 55-44 decision here in mid-December. The emphatic loss ended the Spartans’ 10-game Olympic League winning streak and created a tie for the top spot. They outplayed us in every part of the game, Bainbridge coach Penny Gienger said. They came out a lot more aggressively than we did, they were quick and more structured. We just didn’t play with energy.And they jumped on us with their press, Gienger added. We were shell-shocked and after a while we weren’t willing to risk anything. They just took us out of the flow of the game and we didn’t run plays the way we usually do.Port Angeles applied full-court pressure that produced few direct turnovers but constantly slowed the Spartans down, giving them less time on the offensive end to set up. And the Roughriders swarmed to the ball, giving the Spartans few good looks at the basket. On their offensive end, they passed quickly and crisply, and the majority of their hoops came on easy short-range shots. They also drained half a dozen treys – nearly all of them wide-open shots.The Spartans lacked energy. There were few signs of the quick, efficient team that scored 22 points in five minutes against a Sequim team that, while not the equal of Port Angeles, has received points in state rankings.The Spartans committed turnovers on their two first possessions before an Emily Pierce short jumper and Christine Schwager’s left-handed layin provided a short-lived 4-2 lead. But in just over two minutes the Roughriders scored nine unanswered points, and after another Pierce hoop they scored four more. Fab Rezayat hit a free throw at 1:44 before Port Angeles scored the final five points of the quarter to take a 20-7 lead. The Roughriders opened the second quarter with two treys in the opening minute before Jenny Maurer’s jumper halted the 11-point run. Port Angeles quickly ran off six more points, capped by Lindsay Sather’s interception of a pass deep in the Spartan end and dribbling through the entire team for a layup that made the score 30-9 halfway through the quarter. Bainbridge closed to 32-17 before a Roughrider trey halted the momentum. Alice Russell had two quick hoops to make the score 35-21, but that was as close as the Spartans would get for the rest of the evening as yet another Roughrider radar-guided three-pointer arced into the hoop. Trailing 40-23 at intermission, the Spartans committed four turnovers in the first two minutes of the second half and took two and a half minutes before scoring a free throw. The pace of the game slowed considerably as the number of fouls nearly doubled and each team scored just 22 points in the second half.Russell had a game-high 16 points and Pierce added 14. The pair shot 14 of 29 from the field, but the rest of the team was four of 25 including, one of 11 from three-point range. The Spartans also did themselves no favors, converting just eight of 19 free throw chances. Nor did the referees, who constantly drew the ire of the Spartan faithful, and on at least one occasion that of coach Gienger. On one possession, Natalie Berry emerged suddenly and violently backwards from a group of players. No whistle. Rezayat scooped up the loose ball and tried a twisting mid-air layin but was bodychecked and her shot went wild. Still no whistle; all that was missing were ice skates and shiny helmets.Following last night’s game at Bremerton, the team hosts Olympic on Friday. “