The Stanwood High School boys basketball team ran to an 88-48 win over visiting Oak Harbor Friday, Jan. 9.

The Spartans took advantage of the Wildcats “poor transition defense,” according to Oak Harbor coach John Weston, to race to the win in the Wesco North opener for both schools.

“They beat us in transition, and they had a lot of open looks and made them,” Weston said.

Turnovers, which have bothered the Wildcats recently, weren’t the problem at Stanwood, Weston said, but the inability to recover on defense.

“They did a great job taking advantage of three-on-twos and five-on-fours,” Weston said. “It seemed like we always had at least one guy who got beat and they were able to make us pay for those mistakes.”

Stanwood (1-0, 6-4) wasted little time in piling up the points, zipping to a 23-13 lead after the first quarter. It led 51-30 and 67-38 after the second and third periods.

While the Spartans’ offense was lighting up the scoreboard, their defense did a good job of slowing the Wildcats down, Weston said, forcing Oak Harbor to “grind out points.”

“I though our boys actually played okay offensively,” Weston said. “We had nine different boys who scored.”

Zach Jones led Oak Harbor with 14 points, Dyllan Harris had 12, Ben Fikse six, Diangelo McKinney five, Josh Cote four, Preston Rankin three, Christopher Viers two, Jake Sturdevant one and Sean Erskine one.

“Stanwood is a really disciplined team who knows it identity,” Weston said. “They made open shots and scored in bunches. Every time we made one good play, they would come down and make two.”

Oak Harbor (0-1, 1-9) will return home after six straight road games to host Arlington (0-1, 8-3) at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13.