Lions lose opportunity to gain ground

MOSES LAKE — It was an opportunity to close the gaps on the leaders of the 1B North Central Washington league.

The Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions seized the moment early in their game against Pateros on Saturday night jumping out to a 7-0 lead on the visiting Billy Goats, using a frenetic and chest-to-chest man defense.

Still, the league-leading Goats slowly took control and with the Lions looking off numerous open shots, were able to pull away with a 43-34 win at the Academy Saturday night.

The Lions led 10-6 after the first quarter before the Goats (12-3, 7-0) finally took the lead at 12-10 and held a three-point — 19-16 — cushion at halftime.

“We came out exactly how I was hoping and I was feeling good because we were scoring,” Lions’ coach Duke Wood said. “We hit another lull and let them slowly back in the game. We worked two straight days on in-your-face man and we decided we are not going to ever zone unless we really have to. We were going to get up and play defense and we did but we couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”

Pateros built the lead to 29-25 after three quarters and refused to led their hosts tie or lead over the contest’s last eight minutes.

“We have open looks and we can’t knock them down,” Wood said. “If I only knew why. We shoot all the time in practice. I asked the kids why they think we can’t hit an open shot but a lot of them have never had to score and now they need to and they are having trouble.”

Jonny Roberts led the Lions (10-5, 7-3) with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Pasco 65, Moses Lake 55

PASCO — Moses Lake fell out of the top four in Big 9 Columbia Division with a 65-55 loss at Pasco, the Bulldogs’ first win of the season.

The Bulldogs led 31-18 at halftime and were able to hold off a few late Chiefs pushes to the lead.

Moses Lake (3-14, 3-6) was led by Matt Franz’s 23 points while Gabe Porter and Tyler Raymond each scored 11 points in the defeat.

The Chiefs are now tied for fifth with Kennewick, a game-and-a-half behind fourth place Wenatchee, with three games left to play.

Only the top four teams qualify for the district tournament.

Ephrata 93, Prosser 37

EPHRATA — Can somebody say ‘statement?’

Following their first loss of the season last week at Wapato, the Ephrata Tigers took the time this weekend to remind everyone how one defeat does make a season nor warrant overconfidence against them,

On Saturday, the Tigers sent the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) a message with a devastating 93-37 whitewash of visiting Prosser.

The win followed up a pivotal 70-54 win at Selah on Friday night that gives the Tigers’ sole possession of first place in the CWAC.

The victory puts Ephrata one-game ahead of Wapato who currently holds the tiebreaker between the two teams.

“I am really happy with how we played because I think the loss helped us understand how focused we have to be every single night,” Tigers coach Brandon Evenson said. “The Prosser game was about playing like we can and not coasting. We are better than a lot of teams we play and we coast until we pull away. I challenged them to play the best they can and they did.”

Patrick Simon was a one-man wrecking crew against Prosser, scoring 38 points and grabbing 16 rebounds while the Tigers (13-1, 11-1) shot 56 percent from the field.

Ross Buchert added 22 points and six assists while Mark Novik pitched in with 14 points.

Evenson liked the areas of play his team were obviously taking more serious.

“Definitely we showed improvement in our intensity and making plays, diving on the floor for loose balls,” Evenson said. “It was just doing the little things to win.”

At Selah, the Tigers trailed 29-27 before responding with a 13-3 run to end the first half to show they could face down an adversary ready to bring their ‘A’ game.

“It was nice to see how we responded at someone making a run at us,” Evenson said. “Especially after we lost the same way at Wapato.”

Simon had 27 points and 12 rebounds while Buchert added 16 points for the Tigers in the victory over Selah.

Columbia Basin Secondary 56, Thorp 22

MOSES LAKE — It took a little bit for the Phoenix to warm up but when they did the Columbia Basin Secondary School had Thorp right where they wanted them during a 56-22 win on Friday night.

Columbia Basin Secondary (10-5, 7-2) expanded their four-point lead after the first quarter to 27-10 at halftime and the victory was in hand.

“The game gave me a chance to play some of the younger kids and allowed me to give them some needed experience,” Phoenix coach James Shank said. “The players played hard and ran our stuff while we had an opportunity to polish off the rough edges.”

Andrew Palmen led the Phoenix with 18 points while Josh Conner pitched in with 10 points.

Brett Strong dominated the board, snatching 18 rebounds for Columbia Basin Secondary.

“Thorp was outmanned since they were playing with only five players,” Shank said. “They still battled and continued to play us tough.”

Connell 57, Warden 32

CONNELL — Warden played it close to hosts Connell on Saturday, trailing 15-12 after the first eight minutes.

After that, Connell took control of the game, outscoring the visiting Cougars 27-11 during the game’s middle quarters en route to an emphatic 57-32 win.

Warden (8-9, 5-4 in South Central Athletic Conference East play) were led by Nathan Brown’s nine points and Ty Jesse’s seven points.

The Cougars are tied for third in league play with the top four squads qualifying for the district playoffs.

“We got about four teams vying for three spots right now,” Warden coach Wes Richins said. “We’re sitting pretty good but we need to win two out of our last three games to solidify that. If we win all three we have a chance to even finish second. We have three tough games with two of them at home and I also like that we have the number draw so if we end up tying with a team we split with, we would get the higher seed.”

Warden managed a split over the weekend by virtue of its 50-46 win over Columbia (Burbank) on Friday.

The Cougars found a way to win in a contest which featured an unusual finish.

Warden led 40-32 after three quarters only to see Columbia score the first 14 points of the fourth quarter to lead 46-40.

However, Warden stormed back, scoring the game’s final 10 points to pull off the win.

Jesse scored 13 points and gathered six rebounds for Warden who continues to struggle with its streaky play.

“I think we are still trying to figure out who we are,” Richins said. “The good thing is that from night to night we don’t know who’s going to lead us. A lot of teams change things up and we usually have a player step up. When we struggle we are having a problem finding someone to step up and wait around for someone else to get things done.”