Chiefs roll, Lions outmuscled

Alan Dale/Columbia Basin Herald<br> It was a tough battle all night for Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions post players like Rachel Verhage (right) against Pateros on Friday.

by Alan Dale<br
| February 1, 2010 8:00 PM

Moses Lake 53, Pasco 45; Pateros 38, Moses Lake Christian Academy 29; Othello 49, Grandview 44; Prosser 56, Ephrata 48; Soap Lake 24, Waterville 23; Mansfield 35, Wilson Creek 31

MOSES LAKE — It’s that time of year where it benefits a team to get hot as post season looms.

With three winnable games in the distance and a second-straight win recorded Friday night for Moses Lake High School’s girls basketball team, the district playoffs beckon to bring them home.

The Chiefs overcame a 27-19 halftime deficit behind the 14 second-half points of junior post Kayla Bernsen to defeat Pasco 53-45 on Friday night.

With the win, Moses Lake (8-9, 6-3 in Big 9 Columbia Basin division) have all but sewn up third place in their side of the league and now hope to go into the district in their best form.

If Bernsen’s play against Pasco is any indicator they might well be as Bernsen ended up with a team-high 18 points and sparked a 19-5 third quarter run to put the Chiefs in command.

“She really stepped up,” Moses Lake coach Matt Strophy said. “People in the stands even heard her demanding the ball and for the most part she finished inside.”

It was a drastic change from the play that put them in the first-half hole.

“I don’t think we had the intensity inside once again at the start,” Strophy said. “Megan (Sutherland) came in and had a couple of threes, Jordan (Loera) hit a few buckets, Tiffany hit a bucket, but it was our inside game not scoring.”

Until Bernsen took over.

Loera added 16 points while Sutherland finished with 10 points.

Pasco was led by the spectacular effort of Danielle Walter who finished with 28 points.

“Danielle used her screens much better and they held their screens much better than the first time we played them,” Strophy said about the future Gonzaga University player. “She is so smooth and so deceiving.”

Bernsen added nine rebounds and Loera eight assists for the Chiefs who could still finish second by going 3-0 if Southridge losses their last three games.

Wenatchee currently leads the Division with an 8-1 record.

Pasco could over take Moses Lake for third in the same 3-0/0-3 scenario.

“Do I think we can go 3-0, I can say, yes,” Strophy said. “But I don’t anticipate Southridge losing three but you never know.”

Pateros 38, Moses Lake Christian Academy 29

MOSES LAKE — Size mattered.

The visiting 1B sixth-ranked Pateros Nannies came to visit the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lady Lions and flexed a lot of muscle in beating their game, but less physical hosts 38-29 on Saturday night.

It was not a lack of effort that doomed the Lady Lions, just a number of more mature Pateros bodies that took advantage of the younger Academy girls to score key baskets inside.

“There is no doubt that two things stood out in my mind,” Lady Lions coach Bryce McPartland said. “The first was the difference between wanting to win and expecting to win. Pateros expects to win a close game. Our girls wanted very much to win but there is a difference between wanting and expecting to win. They also have a very talented post who is stronger, older, and more aggressive than anyone else on the floor. She got points every single time she needed them.”

That post, Lorrie Mattson, scored 19 points which is below her season’s average, but when it mattered she would keep the Lady Lions (9-6, 4-4) at bay with numerous key buckets.

Pateros (13-5, 10-0) held on to a brittle 25-22 lead going into the fourth quarter before pulling away with inside play and timely free throws.

“You can not fault our effort in this game,” McPartland said. “The girls played extremely hard and you can’t forget Pateros is number six in the state and our girls played hard enough to win. We may not have played smart enough to win and that comes with maturity.”

Kristina Firouzi led the Lady Lions with eight points while Abby Garrett continues her much improved play with six points and excellent defense.

“Defensively we challenged Abby to guard Pateros’ all-league point guard and basically for the majority of the game Abby outplayed her,” McPartland said. “Abby’s also come along from her first practice last year. She scored a total of seven points last year. She’s put in a ton of work since the summer and she’s playing with significant increased confidence. It’s a lot of fun watching her because a few times last year you would watch and ask what was keeping her motivated and throughout this season she’s just put in as much as work as anybody.”

Othello 49, Grandview 44

OTHELLO — The Othello Lady Huskies continued their recent run of solid play with a sweep of their two games this past weekend.

On Saturday, Othello held off a late Grandview (4-10, 3-9 in Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) play) rally to record a 49-44 home win.

Kylee Mollotte scored 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and plucked three steals, while running-mate Christine Kirkwood added 22 points, nine rebounds, five assists, four steals, and four blocked shots.

Othello (7-7, 5-7) led 31-13 at halftime and held on for the win, their sixth on the last eight games.

“We’re playing well and going in the right direction,” Othello coach Laurie Stickel said. “We’re playing well together and using our strengths a little more. We’re taking better care of the ball and handling pressure better so we can actually get a shot.”

The previous evening, Othello travelled to Toppenish and came away 63-55 victors.

It was a 31-31 tie at halftime before Othello slowly started to pull away.

Tiffany Martinez led Othello with 24 points while Mollotte added 21 points and Kirkwood added another 11 points in the win.

“Those three scoring is very important,” Stickel said. “We need to keep them actively in the game and we need all three score to score. We try to set up the offense that one of them is one of our first looks. I think they work well in sharing the ball.”

Prosser 56, Ephrata 48

EPHRATA — Ephrata’s Lady Tigers continues to suffer from split personality as once again they fell short in sweeping weekend games, dropping a 56-48 home decision against Prosser on Saturday.

The loss followed a 61-36 road win at Selah on Friday.

Ephrata (7-7, 6-6 in CWAC) battled the state-ranked Prosser team tough in the first half, trailing 22-18 by halftime.

But, Prosser, led by Tayshia Hunt’s 29 points, exploded to a 23-8 third quarter performance to pull away.

Ephrata was led by Abby Smith’s 15 points and Maggie Lotz’s 11 points.

In their win against Selah, the Lady Tigers needed a strong 17-9 second quarter to finally put the CWAC cellar-dwellers in their rearview mirror.

Kelsey Yenney led Ephtrata with 13 points, Heidi Buchert scored 12 points, while Lotz added 10 points.

Soap Lake 24, Waterville 23

WATERVILLE — After a tough 55-19 loss to Oroville the night before, the Soap Lake Eagles bounced back to pull off a narrow 24-23 win at Waterville Saturday night.

The Eagles (2-11, 2-7) led 15-12 at halftime and battled foul trouble and injuries to hold off their hosts in what coach Bill Sarver intimated was a rough-and-tumble affair.

“We had to change some things we wanted to do due to the foul trouble and the injuries,” Sarver said. “ “Our defense play great. Tami Deines did a great job for us until she got injured.”

Brittany Ellsworth led Soap Lake with seven points.

In the home loss to Oroville, a lack of size was the difference in the Eagles’ loss.

“Oroville has some extremely tall girls and we couldn’t get over that,” Sarver said. “The Soap Lake girls played their hearts out and scrapped as much as they could. Falling behind early against that height advantage made us have to play catch up.”

Diana Sitba led Soap Lake with seven points, while Ellsworth chipped in with five points.

Mansfield 35, Wilson Creek 31

MANSFIELD — A rough first half was enough to doom the Wilson Creek Lady Devils in their 35-31 loss to Mansfield on Friday night.

Mansfield held Wilson Creek to four points in each of the first two quarters to build a 22-8 halftime lead they held on to as the Lady Devils made a furious comeback.

Ksenja Fredere led Wilson Creek (9-5, 9-2) with 15 points, seven steals, and five rebounds.

Holly Wilson added six points and six rebounds.

Wilson Creek cut the deficit to two points but could not tie or take the lead late.

“Mansfield outplayed us in the first half,” Wilson Creek coach Dennis Treat said. “A big part of our game depends on hustle and we did not have that attribute to start the game. It would have been easy to roll over and die but the girls did not give up and played with a lot of heart in the second half.

“I am proud of their second half effort.”