Spartans roll over Spartans in boys basketball

The Spartans vanquished the Spartans 60-45 as Bainbridge beat their namesakes from Sumner Saturday at home in boys basketball.

The Spartans vanquished the Spartans 60-45 as Bainbridge beat their namesakes from Sumner Saturday at home in boys basketball.

Sumner jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but Bainbridge then held Sumner to single-digit scoring in the first and second quarter, and limited the visitors to just eight points in each quarter.

Nick Edens scored 10 points in the first half to pace the Spartans, and Bainbridge led 24-16 at the half.

Edens scored another six points in the third quarter, and teammate Joey Blacker added five points — including his first of two three-pointers — to put Bainbridge ahead 38-30 before the start of the fourth quarter.

Six players scored for Bainbridge in the fourth as the Spartans put the game away for their second victory at home.

Bainbridge Coach Scott Orness said the Spartans’ improvement on defense late in the game was key to the win.

“Defensively in the half court I felt we did a great job,” Orness said. “We struggled with transition defense today, but we did a lot better job in the fourth quarter.”

“And what I really like about our guys is, when teams have made runs on us in the last two games, they have responded in a positive way,” he added. “A lot of that credit goes to Blake Swanson, especially on offense, settling down and really getting the other guys involved.”

Orness noted the relative youth of both teams and said that despite sharing a name, both squads came in pretty much as strangers.

“We both lost a lot of our seniors last year. And both teams are relatively new,” Orness said. “They didn’t know a whole lot about us and we didn’t know a whole lot about them.”

“I think we learned as the game went on,” he added. “I got great info from all of my coaching staff, and I felt we kind of did some in-game scouting and made some good adjustments.”

Edens and Blacker had 19 points each for Bainbridge.

Sophomore guard Riley Bruil led Sumner with 11 points, with eight coming in the second half.