Lions fall short against Knights

MLCA outscored in three quarters

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake Christian Academy faced off against Sunnyside Christian in a much anticipated battle Tuesday.

The Knights pushed past the Lions with fourth quarter pressure, winning 54-44.

"We just came up on the short end tonight," said MLCA head coach Lonnie Brown. "Sunnyside executed better on offense and was able to get it done. They deserved to win."

After a blocked shot from Riggs Yarbro to open the final period of the game, Sunnyside Christian opened up a small run, scoring 6 unanswered points before Moses Lake could get a defensive stop.

The Lions erased the run with back-to-back 3-balls from Philip Friehe and Daniel Timofeyev to make it a 5-point game with 4 minutes to play.

Moses Lake scored just two more field goals in the game, another pair of threes from Friehe and Timofeyev. The 6 points were not enough to offset the nearly 2 minutes of fouls the Lions committed to slow the pace of the game. The Knights went 9-for-14 in their 7 consecutive trips to the line.

"We're not that far away," Brown said. "We just needed to execute better."

Both teams kept it close in the opening periods of the game despite trouble with the lighting that delayed the game for about 5 minutes.

Despite the size advantage of Yarbro, the Lions were rarely able to capitalize on the presence in the paint, due in large part to the defensive quickness of Sunnyside Christian.

Halfway through the first period, the Knights began to pull away, going on a 6-0 run before Friehe hit his first 3-pointer of the night with two minutes left in the quarter.

A drive layup from Taylor McNamara made it a one possession game that was tied briefly by an off the dribble jump shot by Adrian Moffet.

The Knights ended the period with a bucket to regain the lead and extended it with back-to-back hoops to begin the second period.

Friehe stopped the scoring streak with a layup and then saw the Lions take advantage of a steal by Jesse Bassett with a putback by Travis Matzen.

Moses Lake continued to push Sunnyside Christian, outscoring the Knights 10-9 in the period and going into the locker-room down just 1 point after a 2-for-2 trip to the line by Yarbro.

The Lions played catch up through the third quarter, falling behind 5 points in the early going and never quite closing the gap.

"Now we know the road to state goes through Sunnyside and we know what we need to do next time around," said Brown.

Yarbro earned 11 points, 7 boards and 3 blocked shots. Friehe had 11 points and 2 steals. McNamara and Timofeyev earned 6 points each. Timofeyev added 5 assists to his points.