By John Leggett | The Courier Herald

The week before Christmas was an exciting time for the Sumner High boys basketball team as it garnered one of its two wins overall, edging Yelm 55-52 Dec. 18 at home, and then hosting the Terry Fox Hoops For Hope tournament Dec. 21-22 before heading into the winter break with a brand new attitude.

“We’re getting some things figured out as a team,” coach Brett McDaniel said of the Spartan cagers, who were cordial hosts, losing both of their contests in the tournament, 69-51 to Spanaway Lake and 66-51 to Fife.

“One of the things we have ironed out during this time for reflection is that we are going to have to go back to feeding this young team a healthy dose of fundamentals and slow things down a bit,” McDaniel said. “We were trying to play a hurry up offense and it was creating an average of 25 turnovers per game. That doesn’t help you win very many contests.”

“Another thing we are doing,” McDaniel said of his contingent, which now stands at 1-3 in South Puget Sound League 3A action, “is bringing one of the few seniors on this squad, Mike Murphy, in on the coaches meetings and getting some input from him on how we can turn things around and get back on the winning track.”

McDaniel likes the talent on his team, but realizes coaches need to be patient because there are nine sophomores.

The Spartans return to South Puget Sound League 3A play Tuesday when they travel to Lakes and Jan. 8 when they host the Cardinals of Franklin Pierce.

McDaniel called the Hoops for Hope Tourney a success in that the packed stands provided funds for the nonprofit organization.

Against Fife, the Spartans put together two high-scoring quarters, the second and fourth, but it was the 12 points total in the other two periods that took them out of contention. The Spartans’ 20-point outpouring in the second quarter and their 19-point performance in the fourth, outpaced the Trojans each time.

“Despite what the scores might indicate, we really played much better against Fife than we did against Spanaway Lake,” McDaniel said. “We just couldn’t put together four solid quarters.”

The Spartans were led by Jared Lewis against Fife, who finished with a game-high 15 points. Zeb Glissmeyer added 10.

Against Spanaway Lake, the Spartans stayed close, trailing by three at the half, but couldn’t make a game of it in the end.

Murphy led the Spartans with a team-high 15 points.

The Spartans outscored Yelm with a third-quarter burst, 20-8, and then held off the charging Tornadoes for a 55-52 victory.

Murphy led all scorers with 20 points, while Joe Kendall pumped in 10.