Sometimes, it takes trial by fire to reveal areas of strength and weakness.

Wednesday’s Class 3A Seamount League Mount Rainier 53-35 nonleague girls basketball victory at Class 4A South Puget Sound League Decatur definitely defined the current status for both teams.

“It was hectic, sometimes sloppy, and had a lot of fouls, but the girls gave a nice first effort,” said Ram head coach Bob Bolam. “The free throw shooting needs to be better, but we’ll take it.”

For the most part, Bolam’s observations were played out immediately in the first quarter. The opening season game opened with jitters and ragged play. Turnovers were rampant although the intensity picked up later. Guard Zerina Kapetanovic swished a 19-foot shot to get Mount Rainier moving away from a 6-6 draw. Junior post player Lyndsay Headley dished a pass to Kiana Gandy for a layup ahead of Caroline Codd’s free throw that capped off five consecutive Ram points to end the quarter.

Mount Rainier worked its half court offense to penetrate for layups, rebounds and fouls while steadily drawing away to a 22-10 margin with just more than two minutes remaining until halftime. The rebounding led to outlet passes and fast breaks, as well.

Junior post player Kayla Lipston fought fiercely inside to draw fouls and convert 3 of 4 free throws before Lorena Lopez capped a 5-0 Gator run to make the score 22-15.

“I still like my defense better,” said Lipston, who was a top goalkeeper in the SPSL. “You get more energized when you stop someone. Defense wins championships. Offense sells tickets.”

Lipston battled for seven points. After Mount Rainier forged a 43-23 dominance early in the fourth quarter, the Gators settled down to notch seven consecutive points to narrow the gap to 43-30. The Rams destroyed any comeback hopes with a 6-0 scoring surge to answer the Gator charge.

“The first time out was a little jittery,” admitted Marisa Blair, who led the way with 14 Ram points, mostly on breaking lay ups. “It took awhile to get going.”

Amber Guillot also scored in double figures for Mount Rainier with 10. Caroline Codd played a nice all-around game with eight points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals. Sydney Codd notched seven points and Kiana Gandy scored six.

Decatur was led by Ayesia Rogers’ nine points while Mik’kell Frier had six.

Losing heavily to graduation, the Gators are working to fit the new pieces together as a unit.

“We graduated six seniors,” observed Gator head coach Kevin Rawie. “We’re young, but we know what to do. It’s a matter of all the young players getting used to playing together. Tonight, we had numerous opportunities and I know we outrebounded them (the Rams). We’’ll get where we need to, given time.”