Bernsen lights fire in Chiefs win

Moses Lake 74, Sunnyside 22

MOSES LAKE — Ahh. What a nice way to end a losing streak, with a 52-point win.

Not only did the Moses Lake Chiefs’ girls basketball team end a six-game losing streak, they squashed it to the tune of a 74-22 win over Big Nine rivals Sunnyside on Saturday night.

The Chiefs (2-6, 1-1 in Big Nine Columbia Division play) came out rolling behind Kayla Bernsen’s 12 points in the first quarter as Moses Lake took a 22-6 lead after the first eight minutes.

The 6-foot-3 Bernsen, who dominated heighth-wise, would end the night with a career-high 29 points as well as eight rebounds.

“I think she has made strides and strides of improvement over these four weeks of us playing basketball,” Moses Lake coach Matt Strophy said. “She is one of the most coachable kids. She listens not only with her ears but her eyes and says ‘okay.’”

Things didn’t improve for Sunnyside (1-4, 1-1) in the second quarter as the Chiefs built their cushion to 45-11 by halftime.

Jordan Loera added 17 points, 10 assists, and four steals for Moses Lake.

“Couple coaches texted me later saying ‘wow you must have been frustrated,” Strophy said. “It’s not that we don’t like Sunnyside but we have things we have to accomplish, If my subs are in and this is how we play and we score that’s how it goes. The girls went out and worked on things and wanted to do so effectively.”

Sunnyside would score no more than six points in any of the game’s four quarters.

“The Wenatchee game was hard on us so we had a good time just getting it done finally,” Bernsen said. “We had been playing really well but just hadn’t been able to finish. We finally had the intensity for the whole game.”

Toppenish 53, Quincy 38

TOPPENISH — Quincy didn’t have an answer for Toppenish’s Gabriella Lopez and it cost them.

The Lady Jacks gave up 20 points to Lopez and Quincy fell 53-38 in a Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) road encounter on Saturday.

Quincy (3-2, 1-2) led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter and trailed 25-24 at halftime before their hosts blew the game open with a 15-6 third quarter to build a 10-point cushion.

Quincy was led by Jacklyn Lerma’s 12 points, Marisol Lopez’s 11 points and Deanna Lopez’s 11 points.

Prosser 58, Ephrata 34

PROSSER — The up and down season for the Lady Tigers continues.

Following up a big win against Selah on Friday, Ephrata couldn’t keep the momentum and fell at CWAC powers Prosser 58-34 Saturday night.

Ephrata (2-3, 1-2) were held to 27 percent shooting and saw Prosser’s Tamara Jones go off for 23 points.

Ephrata trailed 17-4 after the first quarter and after keeping the deficit at 12 by intermission, were put away by a 24-13 third quarter as Prosser (3-1, 3-0) cruised to the win.

Abby Smith led Ephrata with 12 points.

“We made a lot of young mistakes and we didn’t handle pressure well,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “We just need to keep improving because we turn the ball over way too much. We want to be more competitive than we were (Saturday).”

Grandview 56, Othello 45

GRANDVIEW — Othello inched closer to a second-straight CWAC win until an 18-10 fourth quarter advantage was enough for the hosts in the Huskies’ 56-45 loss on Saturday.

Othello (1-2, 1-2) trailed 38-35 going into the fourth quarter before Grandview’s Payton Parrish (25 points and 10 rebounds) and Jessica Lopez (18 points) turned up the gears to lead their team to the win.

Othello was led by Kylee Mollette’s 16 points and Christine Kirkwood’s 15 points.

The Huskies’ Tiffany Martinez added eight points and 12 rebounds in the loss.