Lions earn key win over Devils

WILSON CREEK — Early in the season or not, any league game weighs exponentially on what may happen months down the road.

Knowing this, the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions opened up the 1B North Central Washington portion of their schedule with a tone-setting 58-38 win at Wilson Creek on Saturday.

“This was huge,” Lions coach Duke Wood said. “We could be at number one or at the bottom right off the bat. It was a must win game because you have to win on the road and the guys realized that in the second half and started picking it up.”

Both teams started off in a defensive battle with the Lions holding a 7-4 lead and ultimately a 21-16 cushion at halftime in a slow tempo contest.

“They slowed it down but we wanted to run,” Wood said. “I talked to them at halftime to try to light a spark in them. We also went to a zone since Wilson Creek wasn’t hitting. The boys just starting running and running after halftime.”

The change for Moses Lake Christian Academy (2-1, 1-0) was enough to get their engines revved to full burn as they torched the Devils during a 17-4 third quarter stretch which put the game out of reach for Wilson Creek (1-3, 0-2).

Stephen McNamara sparked the win with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

“He played really well,” Wood said. “In the second half we pounded it into Stephen.”

Sophomore guard Joe Timoseyev aided that strategy for the Lions by posting his best numbers in his young career with 15 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds.

Austin Reyes led Wilson Creek with 21 points.

The Lions entered the contest off of a 49-39 home win against Odessa the previous night.

McNamara had 25 points and 12 rebounds, while Jonny Roberts contributed 10 points and seven rebounds.

“We pounded it inside to Stephan because I didn’t think they could guard him,” Wood said. “He’s such a strong kid and Odessa didn’t double down. We had a mismatch with physicality and he played big.”

The Lions won both contests without the services of Isaac Murrell, who couldn’t play due to other commitments.

Royal 54, Soap Lake 41

ROYAL — After getting taking to task by state power Zillah the night before, the Royal Knights exacted a little frustration on Saturday night against the visiting Soap Lake Eagles.

It took a while but slowly and surely the Knights (3-2) managed to pull away from their guests 54-41 to end a two-game losing streak.

“We played hard,” Royal coach Pete Christensen said. “We were finally able to pull away in the fourth quarter.”

Soap Lake (0-3) led 12-9 after one quarter before the physical prowess of the Knights eventually began to take its toll.

Matt Barger led Royal with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Mark Albertson added 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Zach Allen led Soap Lake with 18 points, while David Corrias pitched in with 13 points.

Royal returned home from a 69-35 loss at Zillah on Friday.

The Knights trailed 28-18 at halftime before their hosts pulled away.

Albertson scored 12 points in the loss.

Goldendale 54, Warden 38

WARDEN — The Warden Cougars couldn’t maintain their winning edge as they were knocked off at home by Goldendale 54-38 on Saturday.

The Cougars defeated Cle Elum 56-40 the night before in a resounding road victory.

Against Goldendale (5-0), the Cougars (1-3) led 10-7 after the first quarter before their guests began to take control of the tempo.

Warden was led by Nathan Brown’s 13 points and Eric Bates’ 10 points.

“In the first half we were able to play our style,” Warden coach Wes Richins. “In the second half they began to shoot really well and they wore us down.”

Against Cle Elum, Jon Burkholder led with 14 points while Bates added 11 points in the win.

Richins noted his team’s defense’s solid play all weekend, including holding Goldendale approximately 15 points below its season average.

ACH 72, Kittitas 61

KITTITAS — A methodical victory came with some bumps in the road for the Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors who defeated hosts Kittitas 72-61 on Saturday.

ACH (2-1) led 14-13 after one quarter, 38-33 at halftime, and 53-45 after three quarters before registering the 11-point win.

“We were up by about nine points most of the time and we’d let them back in,” ACH coach Scott Isaak said. “We just couldn’t get the margin up there and made things harder than we should have.”

Derek Isaak led the Warriors with 32 points while Kody Dillon and Brandon Boutain each had 10.

“We’re not at a place yet where we are functioning efficiently on either side of the ball and we have to get to a place where we are.” Scott Isaak said. “Defensively we just need to be focused on every possession. On the offensive side of the ball we don’t have any great flow right now and things are hunky-chunky and not fluid.”

Cody Jess added eight points for the Warriors.