By winning two of three South Puget Sound League 2A games, the Sumner High boys rallied from the brink of extinction to put themselves in a position to challenge White River for the SPSL 2A’s No. 4 seed into the subdistricts tournament.

The Spartan cagers hosted Washington Feb. 1 and pulverized the Patriots 71-49.

After zooming to a 41-22 halftime advantage, the Spartans held the Patriots’ feet to the fire, torching WHS with 15 points in both the third and fourth periods. Spearheading the offensive pressure with double digit scoring efforts were Zeb Glissmeyer, Dan DeVries and Joey Kendall. DeVries led all scorers as he pumped in 22 points.

Thursday, Sumner visited Clover Park and found the going much tougher against the 10-1 Warriors, losing 71-49.

The Spartans once again enjoyed balanced scoring when Aaron Clark dropped in 10 points and Glissmeyer and Kendall had 13 and 11, respectively.

The third time was definitely a charm for Sumner, when it rolled to a 65-48 victory over visiting Steilacoom.

After toying with the Sentinels and owning a modest 32-27 edge at the break, the Spartan cagers went for the jugular in the second half, outscoring Steilacoom 33-21.

Leading the charge was Kendall, who emboldened the troops with 21 points. The DeVries twins, Dan and Dave, were in sync, contributed a combined 22 points.

Sumner was 6-7 in league play going into Tuesday’s game at White River.

Should the Spartans have emerged victorious, Sumner and White River would be sporting identical 7-7 marks. It was mutually agreed upon that the two would participate in a coin flip to determine the fourth and fifth entries into the subdistrict tournament.