Academy go to 'town' in rout

WENATCHEE - There is a hope, a real and true goal for the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lady Lions to travel to Spokane in March as a team.

Such a trip would mean they have qualified for the Class 1B 2011 state tournament finals, a journey denied them by a mere handful of points last year.

With a mix of experience and vibrant youth on its roster, the Lady Lions took advantage of an opportunity to play in a larger-than-normal setting, one befitting of a state tournament dress rehearsal.

Taking part in the NCW Prep Showcase at the Town Toyota Center, the Academy stepped onto the court and had no problem running through its lines of act one in preparation for perhaps their greatest role as state finals participant.

While going over those lines, they also ran through, past, around, and all over Waterville in yesterday afternoon's 68-25 trouncing to head into the break with a 5-2 record on the season.

"We were excited about this opportunity to play in such a large venue," Lady Lions head coach Bryce McPartland said. "Aside from just being a fun place to play, playing in Wenatchee's Town Toyota Center was a good experience for the girls, in terms of preparing them for the larger venues that we'll play in the post season. Additionally, Waterville is a town and school that has a lot of basketball tradition, and playing against teams like that, teams that know how to play ball and expect to have success is a good experience for our players."

Waterville may have expected success but the Lady Lions snatched any idea of winning from their thoughts early on as they led 21-4 at the end of the first quarter, which actually started a little sluggish for the Academy.

"The early start time (noon), combined with the weather, made us start a little slow," McPartland said. "We don't always travel all that well and gave up an early basket that I was not at all happy with. Eventually, though, we settled down a bit and the girls started to do their thing."

Their thing translated into continuing to pressure Waterville into numerous errors as they would force 31 turnovers over the course of the game.

The Academy led 41-11 at halftime.

"McKenna Walker and Abby Garrett did a great job of pressuring their ball-handlers," McPartland said. "McKenna was able to convert a few more plays into baskets, but Abby did every bit as well to harass Waterville's point guard and force a ton of turnovers. Between the two of them, it seemed that just about every time the ball crossed half court, it'd head back in the other direction."

The numerous errors of Waterville, combined with the Lady Lions' nurturing of each possession that led to a scant six turnovers, allowed the Academy to take 82 shots compared to Waterville's 26 throughout the course of the game.

Walker led the Lady Lions with 26 points while Madison Yamane ended up with 15 points, Rachel Verhage finished with 13 points, and Melissa Verhage popped in 12 points,

"Madison bounced back from a rough outing against Sunnyside Christian very well," McPartland said. "It was fun to watch her attack the basket and she looked to be playing with a lot more confidence."

Yamane also finished with a team-high eight assists while Walker led the team with 10 steals.

Melissa Verhage and Walker led the team with eight rebounds each.

Next, the Lady Lions host their own holiday basketball tournament along with the boys team, starting on Monday. The field consists of Warden, Tri-Cities Prep, and Bridgeport's boys and girls teams along with the Academy's.

"This game was great, because we were able to rest some of our players and hopefully get them healed up for the Christmas Tournament on Monday," McPartland said. "We were able to sit our injured players and at the same time, we were also able to get some of our younger girls some quality minutes. We have a lot of room to get better, but they're a really great group and I think they're going to find this season more rewarding than not."

The Academy's only losses this season were to the second and fourth-ranked teams in Class 1B, Almira/Coulee-Hartline and Sunnyside Christian.