Sports Bainbridge Island
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Friday, January 24, 2014 • Bainbridge Island Review
Hot second half pushes Wildcats in front of Spartans BY LUCIANO MARANO Bainbridge Island Review
The Wildcats outlasted Bainbridge 62-50 in boys basketball after a big second half Saturday, Jan. 18 at Paski Gymnasium. West Seattle led 22-17 at the end of the first quarter, but Bainbridge pulled to within three points, 31-29, by halftime. The Wildcats held the Spartans to single-digit scoring in the third, however, and just nine points. West Seattle poured it on in the fourth and out“We’ve got a lot scored BHS 20-12 for to learn from this the upset win. “We wanted to find game... I thought we out how tough we were hung our heads, and I think this game even starting in the showed us we’ve got a long way to go,” said first half.” Spartan Head Coach Scott Orness Scott Orness. “There Spartans Head Coach are certain teams you’ve got to beat in this league, and there’s no nights off,” he added. “You know a team like West Seattle, who I think is a good team and well-coached, but we’ve got to learn to show up as if it’s Rainier Beach, Seattle Prep or O’Dea teams with the big names. We’ve got a tendency to fluff off against the teams that we should beat.” The top Bainbridge performers of the night included some familiar names. Trent Schulte led Bainbridge with 16 points. Joey Blacker and Oskar Dieterich chipped in nine points each for BHS. Others scoring for the Spartans were Riley Irish (six points), Lyle Terry (five), Blake Swanson (three) and Ben Beatie (two). Orness said that the Spartans lost the game because they were simply outplayed that night. “I give all credit to West Seattle,” Orness said. “They came in here expecting to win and they did so.”
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge junior wing/post Oskar Dieterich goes in for a layup during the game against West Seattle.
“We’ve got a lot to learn from this game,” the Spartan coach said. “I thought it was one of our lowest performances of the year in a lot of ways. I thought we hung our heads, even starting in the first half. I felt our bigs never really got going. I felt that we missed easy buckets, which is a lack of concentration. If we’re going to let fatigue like that get in our heads, then we’re not going to go to the places we want to go this year.”
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge junior wing Ben Beatie jumps for a basket during the home game against West Seattle Saturday, Jan. 18.
Spartans slam Ingraham in wrestling BY LUCIANO MARANO Bainbridge Island Review
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
BHS grappler Jack Miller competes in the 145-pound class match during the Spartan home meet against Ingraham late last week.
The Bainbridge High varsity wrestlers celebrated their last home meet of the season, and senior night, not with speeches and ceremonies but instead with solid athletic performances and a speedy victory over Ingraham late last week. The final score was 36-30 Bainbridge. “I told them [the team] before we started that this was an opportunity to grow up,” said Spartan Head Coach Dan Pippinger. “There’s things that we’ve done that are old habits that we have to grow out of, and we really need to focus on what we talked about in practice,” he said. “Practice has to translate into what happens on the mat.” If what happened on the mat against Ingraham is any indication, the Spartans’ abilities lost nothing in the translation to
competition. The match began with double forfeits in the 106-pound and 113pound classes. The Rams took the first match as Justin Kyle (120-pound class) of Ingraham pinned Myron Butler of Bainbridge in 5:54. In the 126-pound class, Jonathan Gallivan of BHS quickly dispatched Jack Langwell with a pin in 53 seconds. Ingraham won the next two battles, with Liam Kinkead (132pound class) claiming victory with a pin of Chaney Weaver of BHS in 1:34, and the Rams winning by forfeit in the 138 class. The Spartans took the next five matches. Jack Miller (145) pinned Antoine Combs in 1:47. Dylan Read (152) stopped Richard Hill of Ingraham with a pin at the 3:16 mark. Joaquin Gurza (160) pinned the Rams’ Michael Reyes in 1:26. Liam Topham claimed a
Bainbridge win by forfeit in the 170-pound class. In the final contest of the night, Mike Grant (182) pinned Kaine Wofford of Ingraham in 1:59. The Rams closed out the night with forfeit wins by Zander Valterra and Cameron Wild (Ingraham) in the in the 195- and 220-pound classes, respectively. The teams double forfeited in the 285-pound class. The Spartan seniors recognized were Read and Gurza, two obvious team leaders and athletic role models. “They both have kind of taken their own paths,” Pippinger said of the seniors. “They’re both really originals. As seniors, they really stepped up to take responsibility for their teammates,” the coach said. “Once they got going, they decided to turn it on and work on being the best.” Looking ahead to the start
of the post season, Pippinger said the challenge ahead will be staying focused despite a less intense schedule. “The next biggest hurdle is making sure we stay consistent through the rest of the season,” he said. “We’ve got a lot less competition, a lot more practice, and sometimes it’s more difficult when you start grinding into practice to really stay focused on getting better. It’s hard not to lose sight of getting better every day when you’re grinding every day and instead of getting in there to accomplish something you’re just trying to get through it.” The team wrestles again on the road at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 18 against Steilacoom High. “We’ve still got several weeks left before we get to postseason,” Pippinger said. “We’re not peaking yet. We’re still moving in a direction that’s about getting better.”