Lady Knights break loose in win over Soap Lake

ROYAL — It took them a little while to get off the slide, but when they did the Royal Lady Knights made sure of it.

Royal ended a season-opening four-game losing streak by blitzing Soap Lake 55-21 on Saturday night.

The Knights (1-4) got off to a solid start, leading 14-8 after the first quarter and gradually built their cushion from there.

“We’ve struggled with man defense and have played more zone than we wanted to,” Royal coach Brock Anderson said. “So I told them we would play

man and we shut them down. For the game we forced 46 turnovers and had 28 steals. The girls are real active on defense and that’s good.”

Leslie Brown led Royal with 23 points and eight steals, while Maggie Leal had 11 points, 13 rebounds and seven steals.

Royal, who outscored Soap Lake 14-0 in the third quarter, received an 11-point contribution from Lindsey Christensen.

“Basically we were just in slow motion out there,” Soap Lake coach Bill Sarver said. “We couldn’t get anything started and we only had seven players, since four were sick. We couldn’t get into sync since we couldn’t get into our normal player rotation.”

Anderson is glad to have put the early losing streak behind his girls.

“It was good to get a win I’ll say that,” Anderson said. “Maybe the focus and intensity from the night before carried over. We brought energy and are starting to get it. Its not an X and Os thing, they just started doing stuff that was instinctive.”

Royal fell to Zelah 56-40 on Friday night, but not before making a run at their hosts after falling behind big early.

“It was good because we could have folded up and got blown out but we didn’t,” Anderson said. “It was by far the best we’ve played against the best team we’ve played so far.”

So while Royal builds off of two solid performances, the Eagles will try to break out of their 0-3 start themselves.

“We got a lot of work to do in the gym,” Sarver said. “It’s hard to say how things can go but if we get everybody back healthy and playing we will win some games.”

Brittany Ellsworth led Soap Lake with 11 points.

Wilson Creek 43, Moses Lake Christian Academy 36

WILSON CREEK — Round one to the Devils.

Wilson Creek’s Lady Devils went one up on Moses Lake Christian Academy with a 43-36 win Saturday night.

The Devils (2-2, 2-0) came back from a 10-4 deficit after the first quarter and came back from 33-30 down going into the last quarter.

“We got a real bad Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde complex right now,” Moses Lake Christian Academy coach Bryce McPartland said. “We didn’t maintain our composure real well and we had a lot of undefended travelling calls. It was pretty remarkable.”

Wilson Creek managed to rally against the visiting Lions (1-2, 0-1) despite Holly Wilson being held to nine points, approximately half her season’s average.

“We are 2-2 overall, but more importantly we are 2-0 in league,” Devils coach Dennis Treat said. “The Moses Lake Christian girls are well coached by Bryce and I know our games with each other will be hard fought all season long.”

In the fourth quarter, the Lions’ offense against their 1B North Central Washington rivals bogged down.

“We had a lot of trouble getting into our offense in the fourth quarter for no good reason,” McPartland said. “We’ve played six pretty good quarters of basketball and six pretty rancid ones this season.”

Kristina Firouzi had 10 points to lead Moses Lake Christian Academy while Rachel and Melissa Verhage each had eight points.

Jackie Treat sparked the Devils with 11 points while Ksenja Fredere added 10 points in the win.

The Lions came into the game coming off a 38-28 win over Odessa the previous evening.

Firouzi and Madison Yamane each had 11 points in the victory.

Concurrently, the Devils lost to Sprague-Harrington 57-41 on Friday, despite the efforts of Brynna Stevens who recorded 14 points and 10 rebounds, Wilson and her 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Fredere who ended up with 12 points.

Despite not maintaining their momentum for a second straight win, McPartland sees the light at the end of the baseline.

“We were in a position to win this one so if the girls continue to grow this could be manageable for us,” he said. “If this is in any indication we will be in the mix come district playoff time.”

Goldendale 48, Warden 15

WARDEN — The Warden Cougars dropped two contests this weekend including a 48-15 home loss to Goldendale on Saturday.

Goldendale led 17-8 at halftime and blew the game open with a 19-3 third quarter.

Casey Kisler and Randy Wright each had five points to lead Warden in the loss.

The previous night the Cougars travelled to Cle Elum and came out on the short end of a 57-37 result.

Kisler led the Cougars (0-4) with 16 points.

ACH 67, Kittitas 54

KITTITAS — When the Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors rose from their slumber Saturday they did more than shine.

They went into full eclipse mode.

Despite trailing 15-3 early on against Kittitas, the Warriors (3-0) would shake off the badness, take the lead at the end of the first quarter and never look back in a 67-54 win.

“We weren’t ready to play with the physical intensity they had,” ACH coach Ben Addink said. “We just started to play man-to-man defense and we had some girls come off the bench and play real well for us.”

ACH led 19-16 after the first quarter, by five at halftime and went on from there.

Their comeback early in the game was sparked by Sarah Gloyn’s two three-pointers, Addink said.

Madeline Isaak led ACH with 31 points, while Nikki Osborne added 17 points, and Gloyn finished with 13 points.

Addink said the Warriors’ team game opened up options for Isaak to be able to make Kittitas’ hot start a quick memory.

“She earned them tonight and really played hard for us.” Addink said. “We spread the court to get all five girls get open around the court and she hit four threes and scored off pic-and-roll play. It was a loud 31”