The Fruitport boys basketball team hung tough after a bad first quarter on Tuesday night, but still experienced their first loss of the season, 64-53 to visiting Sparta.

The Spartans jumped out to a 21-10 lead after one quarter, but the Trojans started keeping pace. Sparta had a 19-16 edge in the second quarter and led 40-26 at halftime, and a 17-13 edge in the third and led 57-39 heading into the fourth.

Fruitport outscored the visitors 14-11 in the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough.

The Trojans fell to 1-1 on the season.

“We were not at our best tonight with execution, both offensively and defensively,” said Fruitport Coach Steve Erny. “A couple of runs in both the first half and second half hurt us. To our group’s credit, we were able to crawl back within striking distance, but could not get over the hump.

“We’ll be able to take a lot from this game and continue to improve.”

DayDay Williams led the Trojans with 17 points, Dexter Lillmars added 14 and Grade Anspach finished with 13.

Fruitport will visit Montague on Thursday night.