The South Puget Sound League 2A is indeed a faction to be reckoned with, as its cage contingents won nine of the 11 contests they competed in during the subregional tournament.

Sumner High had two of those wins as teams jockeyed for position in the coming West Central District tourney. Sumner defeated North Mason 68-47 and beat Lindbergh 59-39.

“After being directly involved in two subdistrict basketball games and watching more than that this past weekend, there is not a doubt in my mind that the SPSL 2A is the best 2A league in Washington, west of the mountains at least,” coach Bret McDaniel said. “I think that is part of the reason no squad in the SPSL 2A went undefeated during the regular season…we have been hammering on one another all season long, but I guess it made us better for having gained the experience.”

Sumner opens WCD play tonight, Wednesday, taking on Port Angeles at 8 at Tacoma’s Foss High.

The Spartans had to make a slight adjustment against Lindbergh after trailing at halftime 24-22.

“We had to tweak our defense a little bit in the second half against Lindbergh and the success of our transition game depends so much on being able to make our shots from the outside,” McDaniel said. “We went zero-for-six from outside the arc in that first half, but when Joey Kendall and Dan DeVries switched places in the third and fourth periods we outscored Lindbergh 37-15.”

DeVries had four deflections, Kendall had four steals in the second half and Zeb Glissmeyer had 15 points, 13 boards and three blocked shots against Lindbergh.