Fast-paced Panthers too much for Chiefs

Moses Lake struggles on both ends of the court in 78-57 loss to Wenatchee

MOSES LAKE - A 21-point loss in the season's first league contest might be an indicator of a poor effort.

But if there's one thing Moses Lake head coach Rolland Hansen learned in his Columbia Basin League debut on Tuesday, it's that effort isn't his team's problem right now. Execution is.

"We came out and played hard and the kids gave 110 percent," Hansen said after the Chiefs fell to the Wenatchee Panthers, 78-57. "They gave it all they had - but there's more to it.

"As an inexperienced team we've got to be able to run our offense and our defense without any mistakes," he added. "Or we're not going to able to compete with teams like Wenatchee."

Moses Lake (3-4 overall, 0-1 CBL) executed well in the early-going, emerging from the first quarter with a 19-18 advantage. But it was all Wenatchee after that, as the Panthers consistently beat the Chiefs in transition and piled up 16 second-chance points through determined rebounding.

The Chiefs were also stung by foul trouble to star forward Michael Olaniyan. The senior picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and rode the bench for the majority of the second half. If Olaniyan hadn't been limited to 24 minutes, he might've improved on what was an otherwise stellar performance - 17 points and seven rebounds.

"I know that Wenatchee, one of the things they wanted to do was get Mo out of there," Hansen said. "Mo was playing real well, like he has been playing. He's really established himself as one of the best posts in the league, I think.

"Other coaches know that, and when we have him come out, they take advantage of the fact that he's out of there," he added.

Olaniyan and junior guards Casey Hudson and Josh Loera all finished in double-digit scoring for the Chiefs. They were a huge factor in the first quarter, matching Wenatchee's up-tempo game score for score.

Hansen said the game's fast pace wasn't a problem - it was the fact the Chiefs weren't initiating most of it.

"We're just not establishing it," he said. "When we play well we're running awfully fast."

As the game moved along, the Panthers became more aggressive and consistently beat the cold-shooting Chiefs down the floor. Moses Lake finished the night at just 34 percent from the floor (22 of 64), and many of those misses turned into lay-ups for Wenatchee.

"Before the half we gave up a lot of transition points," Hansen said. "We're weren't getting back with them when they were releasing early on the shot."

Hudson scored 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting, and Loera added 10, but shot just 4 of 20. The coach felt his team's offensive struggles can be traced to inexperience.

"We're not waiting for the offense to come to us," he said. "We need to set screens and use screens. The kids need to create plays out of their motion offense, they need to run the plays that we do have in off the fast break."

Wenatchee, which shot 51 percent as team, had three players in double figures and two more who scored at least eight points. Senior post Seth Tagge led all scorers with 19 points, and guards Austin Bryan and Carter Shae added 14 points apiece.

Wenatchee's transition game took over in the second quarter and Bryan hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 24-21 lead the Panthers would never give up. Bryan's 3-point play off a fast-break lay-up put Wenatchee up 10 with 3 minutes to go in the half, and the Panthers led 39-28 at the break.

Moses Lake won the third quarter with a 20-point outburst, but couldn't make enough defensive stops to cut into the lead. Whatever hopes the Chiefs had left were quickly swallowed up in the fourth quarter, as an 8-2 run gave the visitors a 16-point lead with 5 minutes left.

The Chiefs take 10 days off before playing another non-league game on Friday, Dec. 28, against Lake City of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

"There's a lot of things we can fix to make us a more competitive team, but we've got a ways to go," Hansen said.