Vikings hold off Chiefs in Coeur d'Alene

COEUR D'ALENE — The Moses Lake Chiefs boys basketball team couldn’t pull off a road victory Tuesday night as the hosting Coeur d'Alene Vikings rolled to a 69-51 win.

The Vikings ran out to a 18-6 first quarter lead over Moses Lake and continued to distance themselves from the Chiefs in the second quarter.

Coeur d'Alene took an 18-point lead over Moses Lake into halftime and the Vikings never looked back.

Moses Lake head coach Rolland Hansen said his team did not play their best game Tuesday night.

“I can’t think of one area we played well,” he said. “We are struggling.”

The Vikings continued to distance themselves from the Chiefs in the third quarter as Coeur d'Alene took a 25-point 61-36 lead into the game’s fourth quarter.

Hansen said his team played a competitive Coeur d'Alene team.

“We got beat pretty good,” he said. “We ran into a pretty good team tonight.”

While his team left Coeur d'Alene with the loss, Hansen said his team didn’t give up.

“They didn’t quit battling,” he said. “We should be a good team by mid-season. It's gonna take some work.”

Hansen said his team will use the experience from Tuesday night’s loss to improve through the remainder of the season.

“It’s going to be an up and down battle this season,” he said. “We talked about it a lot at halftime, about how we need to come together as a team. They need to trust each other.”

Moses Lake senior Josh Loera led the Chiefs with 22 points.

Hansen said Loera worked hard for his team-leading effort.

“It was a tough 22,” Hansen said.

Senior Casey Hudson added 12 points and Isac Bergeson had eight points in the loss.

Moses Lake returns to the basketball court Friday night when they travel to Eisenhower to take on the Cadets.

The opening tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.