PINCONNING - Mar. 8, 2010 - Pinconning had never hosted a boy basketball tournament game before Monday.

No matter how many they host, it will be difficult to top that first one.

The Spartans were not given much of a chance against the fifth-ranked Bridgeport Bearcats.

Nevertheless, the Spartans opened the game with a shocking 21-6 run and held on for a 50-43 victory over the district favorites and defending state semifinalists.

If the upset even surprised Pinny's own fans, it was hard to blame them. Bridgeport beat Essexville Garber this season by scores of 71-23 and 79-45. That same Garber team knocked off Pinny 58-55 in January.

The Spartans' performance even suprised coach Tim Floyd, who hadn't had much time to figure out what went wrong during last Thursday's miserable outing against Bay City Central.

"We just had so much more intensity (tonight)," Floyd said. "We made some shots and we took care of the ball. We had just 10 turnovers, and to do that against that team, that gave us a chance to win."

"I think that ended up being good for us," said Spartan senior Casey Pashak of the Bay City Central loss. "It showed us what we needed to do to break a good press. We shot 13-of-51 (against BCC) and still lost by just five. I think we came in knowing if we played our hardest we could play with (Bridgeport)."

The raucous mass of Spartan faithful were thrilled when Pinny held even with the Bearcats through the opening minutes. They grew even louder, possibly as much out of hopeful disbelief as anything else, as the Spartans broke away from a 6-6 tie with a 15-point, seven minute run that included Pashak's breakaway dunk, rebound baskets against the bigger Bearcats from Pashak and Lucas Foco, a nifty pair of floaters from James Perry and four points from Travis Garbulinski.

Floyd knew Bridgeport would come back, and by halftime they Bearcats had pulled to within 26-21, with Darvin Ham - son of the former Detroit Piston - ending the half with a 3-pointer.

"We were happy to go into the locker room up five," Floyd said. "If you'd have told us at the start of the game we'd be ahead at that point, we'd have taken it. We couldn't dwell on the fact they'd held us without a score for three minutes and cut 10 points off the lead."

But even that remaining five points was gone within seconds as Ham opened the third quarter with a triple, Derrick Davis scored inside and Kyle Hampton hit a free throw to give the Bearcats their first lead since 4-2.

"We were down for a second," Pashak said. "But we knew we had to play through it."

Pinny responded with a David Paulik free throw, four Foco points and a 3-pointer by Garbulinski to open up a 34-27 lead.

Bridgeport closed it to 39-38 with four minutes to play, but Pashak pulled the string on a triple from the corner to give the Spartans the breathing room they needed..

"I missed my previous two pretty bad," Pashak said. "I was just hoping to at least hit the rim."

Foco scored six points in the final minute, including four at the free throw line, to seal the win and set off a midcourt celebration with their classmates.

"We rebounded extremely well, especially defensively," Floyd said. "Paulik did a nice job in one of his first starts of the year. We decided to go big and slow. He's about as big and slow as you get, and he gave us some pretty good minutes."

Pashak led all scorers with 17 points, Foco had 16 points and 14 rebounds and Garbulinski had eight points and six rebounds as Pinny improved to 17-4. The Spartans take on Garber (10-10) in Wednesday's late semifinal.

Davis, a McDonalds All-American nominee, and Ham each scored 13 points to lead Bridgeport (17-4).