By John Leggett

The Courier-Herald

The Sumner High boys basketball team has had better starts to its hoop campaigns. A pair of league setbacks with Clover Park and Auburn Mountainview have dropped its league record to 1-3, having only beaten a rebuilding Peninsula club.

The Spartans commenced Dec. 15 with a 66-26 drubbing at the hands of a tough Clover Park bunch on the Warriors’ hardwood.

Sumner then rolled out the red carpet for a formidable Auburn Mountainview contingent Thursday and thanks in part to the combined home court offensive efforts of Mike Murphy and Tyler Salisbury, the Spartan cagers put on a far more entertaining show, albeit losing the game to the visiting Lions 62-55.

One of the crises Sumner faced was it fell behind in the first half as Auburn Mountainview doubled up on it 31-15 by halftime.

To their credit though, the Spartans pulled themselves together and raised some home crowd eyebrows, battling back to outscore the Lions 38-31 in the second half, but still came up short.

Examining the Spartans’ schedule, it won’t be a walk in the park in January and February, but at least for most of January the Sumner slate will be highlighted by five of eight of its games being played in the friendly confines of the Spartan fortress against Franklin Pierce, White River, Bonney Lake, Enumclaw and Clover Park.

Sumner had a nonleague rendezvous with Yelm Friday with the results coming too late to report here due to early deadlines. In its initial game after reporting back to school from the holidays, the Spartans face Lakes at 7 p.m. Jan. 5.