Post season look takes shape
Alan Dale/Columbia Basin Herald<br> Moses Lake's Jordan Loera (middle) finds herself the center of attention during the Chiefs' 64-54 win over Kennewick on Saturday night.
Moses Lake 64, Kennewick 54; Ephrata 65, Grandview 41; East Valley 48, Quincy 38; Entiat 51, Moses Lake Christian Academy 34; ACH 67, Odessa 17
MOSES LAKE — It’s all set. Moses Lake High School girls’ basketball team knows where they are going to play at the Big 9 district playoffs.
Well sort of.
By virtue of their 45-38 loss at Southridge on Friday night and then their 64-54 win against Kennewick the next night, Moses Lake (9-10, 7-4) is entrenched as the third-seed out of the Big 9 Columbia Division.
It appeared their opponent would be Richland out of the Cascade Division but a series of upsets this past weekend has left the Chiefs’ opponent still up in the air.
One more league win for Richland and Moses Lake would travel there — potentially Friday night — this weekend. But a combination of a Richland loss and an all-of-a-sudden hot Walla Walla team getting a victory and things could get murky.
In the meantime, the Chiefs took care of their own business beating Kennewick behind Tiffany Morris’ 14 points and Jordan Loera’s 11 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, as they pulled away in a chippy second half.
“We finally got to be able to pull away in the third quarter and got the lead up to 20,” Moses Lake coach Matt Strophy said. “ We spread our offense out a little better and got more comfortable.”
Moses Lake wraps up their regular season at home against Davis tomorrow night on Senior night while aiming to level their record at .500 after a 1-6 start.
“We’ll keep it nice and short and simple in preparation for Davis,” Strophy said. “We’ll make sure everyone knows what we expect and work some substitution patters again. Nothing is going to change in the playoff picture for us, we are going on the road we just have to find out where. We just need to get our mental and physical toughness going and get our momentum going before next weekend.”
Ephrata 65, Grandview 41
GRANDVIEW — With a sweeep of Toppenish and Grandview this weekend, the Ephrata Lady Tigers not only shook their habit of splitting double-headers, they also moved to within one game of fourth-place Wapato in the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC).
Ephrata (9-7, 8-6) wrapped up the weekend with a 65-41 win at Grandview on Saturday after a 58-41 win at Toppenish Friday night.
Both games saw the Lady Tigers break out to big leads in the games’ first eight minutes, including the establishment of a 25-7 lead at Grandview.
“I think our kids are really coming on and understanding their roles and contributing,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “Everybody’s doing their job, sharing the ball, and playing as a team which is making a difference. We are required to play four quarters and they are excited to play and play for each other.”
In the win against Grandview, Ephrata was led by Kendra DeHoog’s 15 points, Abby Smith’s 12 points and nine rebounds, and Kelsey Tenney’s 11 points.
At Toppenish, Ephrata led 37-15 at halftime and coasted to the win behind Yenney’s 18 points, while Mallory Lotz chipped in with 11 points.
East Valley 48, Quincy 38
YAKIMA — Despite a 48-38 loss to East Valley on Saturday, the Quincy Lady Jacks’ 33-31 win at Grandview the previous night propelled them into sixth place in the CWAC and three-games clear of finishing at no lower than seventh.
The top eight teams make the district tournament.
Quincy won at Grandview by virtue of a 12-0 second quarter performance which gave them a 18-8 lead at the intermission and the Lady Jacks (8-8. 6-8) held on for the win.
Desiree Durfee led Quincy with seven points and Marisol Lopez had eight rebounds.
In the loss at East Valley, Quincy gave up an opportunity to beat the CWAC leaders, holding a 24-16 halftime lead before the Class 2A sixth-ranked hosts took control.
Taylor Kunkel scored 11 points and Dayanna Lopez had 10 points for Quincy.
Entiat 51, Moses Lake Christian Academy 34
MOSES LAKE — A resounding 74-25 win over Easton on Friday night did not provide enough momentum for Moses Lake Christian Academy’s Lady Lions who fell in a non-league game to 2B Entiat the next night, 51-34.
The Lady Lions (12-7, 7-4) trailed 28-16 by halftime and couldn’t make a strong enough push to close the gap in falling to their guests.
We aren’t huge on moral victories, but there is no question that the girls, even in defeat, have come a long, long way,” Lady Lions coach Bryce McPartland said. “At no point was this game a complete blow-out and our girls fought from the tip to the final horn. I was very proud of our young team’s effort over the course of the game.”
Freshman Rachel Verhage scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds while eighth-grader Susan Timofeyev chipped in with seven points and five rebounds.
Against Easton, Verhage scored 18 points and collected 26 rebounds, Madison Yamane ended up with 22 points and seven rebounds, Melissa Verhage added 12 points and defensive stopper, Abby Garrett, held Easton’s 2009 1st Team All-League player, Amanda Fitzgerald, to five points.
“We tried to take the foot off the gas in the third and made the girls pass the ball around,” McPartland said. “Obviously, this exercise was less successful that we would’ve liked. We ran some different things in the second half and worked on some of our deficiencies.”
ACH 67, Odessa 17
ODESSA — Almira/Coulee-Hartline’s Lady Warriors wrapped up an undefeated Bi-County campaign with their 67-17 win at Odessa on Friday night.
ACH (17-3, 6-0) were led by Nikki Osborne’s 15 points and Sarah Gloyn’s 13 points as they led 39-4 by halftime,
They enter the District 7 1B Tournament as the Bi-County’s number one seed and host Curlew on Wednesday in the quarterfinals and with a win would play Saturday in the semifinals.
Become a Subscriber!
You have read all of your free articles this month. Select a plan below to start your subscription today.
Already a subscriber? Login
