Lions record triple digits, Chiefs out of district hunt

Moses Lake Christian Academy 65, Easton 2; Kennewick 60, Moses Lake 53; Columbia Basin Secondary 62, Wilson Creek 55; Ephrata 81, Grandview 73; ACH 61, Odessa 34; Warden 57, River View 55; Wapato 75, Othello 67; East Valley 61, Quincy 54; Royal 63, Wahluke 47

MOSES LAKE — Despite their best efforts the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions couldn’t do much worse to not do so much better.

On Friday night, the Lions captured a 1B North Central Washington league win over visiting Easton in a 112-7 final.

The Lions (12-5, 8-3) led 40-0 at halftime and 65-2.

“All we wanted to do was run our offense, take our, time, and pass a lot but everything came so easy,” Lions coach Duke Wood said. “I can’t tell you how well we shot but it had to be 65 to 70 percent. We ran every offense we have. If we didn’t get a lay-up or easy shot we always got an easy rebound and put back. We were left open a lot and weren’t attacking the rim - we only shot 15 free throws the entire game.”

Wood was hamstrung by a JV game played earlier which cut into the amount of playing time his varsity bench could get onto the court.

Players are only allowed to participate in five quarters per date by way of state athletic rules.

“I played every kid I had on the bench,” Wood said. “We only dressed six JV players so they all played four quarters. We had seven varsity players and three JV players to fill but those JV kids only had one quarter to play. I had no choice to play our seven varsity kids a lot of minutes. If I had known they had lost some players I would have cancelled the JV game and used those players in the varsity game.” Easton was missing a few of their players due to unknown reasons.

Johnny Roberts scored 25 points and had five rebounds to lead the Lions, Isaac Murrell had 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, and Joe Timofeyev recorded a triple double ?— 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.

Pierson Fode added 14 points.

“I feel bad for them but what do you do? I can’t tell my guys to miss shots on purpose, or commit turnovers, or stop defending,” Wood said. “We did everything we could to make it hard for us. We even stopped breaking by the second quarter. My boys knew the situation and they handled themselves well.”

The following night the Lions dropped a non-league 61-46 game to visiting 2B Entiat.

The Lions led 12-5 after the first quarter before Entiat went to its bread-and-butter.

“We came out and had them a little shook,” Wood said. “We got steals and were all over the floor, all over the rebounds and I think their coach said that’s enough of that, it’s Dylan Crawley time.

Crawley, a 6-7 point guard, scored 10 points in the second quarter and had three assists leading to three-pointers for Entiat, who took a 25-20 lead by halftime.

“He took over and we tried everything,” Wood said.

Crawley ended with 21 points.

Timofeyev had 15 points, six rebounds, and four assists in the loss.

Kennewick 60, Moses Lake 53

KENNEWICK — A 60-53 road loss at Kennewick cemented Moses Lake’s post season fate.

There won’t be any in 2010.

With the loss on Saturday and a 58-39 home loss to Southridge on Friday, the Chiefs (3-16, 3-8) were eliminated from the Big 9 district playoffs which begin this weekend.

On Saturday, Moses Lake led 30-29 at halftime before sophomore Reggie Clinton took over to lead the Lions to the win.

Clinton finished with 24 points.

Moses Lake was led by Gabe Porter’s 14 points and Bryce Perez’s 12 points.

On Friday, Southridge methodically pulled away for the win.

The Chiefs, which have now lost six in a row, trailed 28-16 at halftime, but managed to keep it close in the third quarter cutting the deficit to seven points before Southridge pulled away.

Perez led the Chiefs with 11 points.

Columbia Basin Secondary 62, Wilson Creek 55

WILSON CREEK — Behind Kayleb Jensen’s 25 points and nine assists, the Columbia Basin Secondary Phoenix completed a season sweep of the host Devils with a 62-55 win Saturday night.

Andrew Palmen added 12 points and Josh Conner added 12 rebounds for the Phoenix (11-5, 8-2), who continue their push for a first ever state playoff spot.

Columbia Basin Secondary outscored Wilson Creek (4-8, 2-8) 18-10 in the fourth quarter to record the win.

Ephrata 81, Grandview 73

GRANDVIEW — With four games left to play the Ephrata Tigers maintain their one game lead in the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC).

The Tigers kept their edge by beating Grandview 81-73 on Saturday night and with a blow out win at Toppenish 79-46.

Patrick Simon continues his current run of dominant form, scoring 35 points an grabbing 12 rebounds in the win at Grandview.

The Tigers (14-1, 13-1) led 41-39 at halftime but pulled away in the second half with the help of Matt Novik, who scored 24 points and Randall Tupling, who finished with 14 points.

Tupling added 11 rebounds.

In the rout of Toppenish, Simon scored 29 points and Ross Buchert added 16 for the Tigers, who led 52-21 at halftime.

ACH 61, Odessa 34

ODESSA — An early lead was enough for the Almira/Coulee-Hartline boys basketball team to hold on to beat host Odessa 61-34 on Friday night.

The win cemented sole possession of the 1B Bi-County League crown.

“We’re allowed to feel good about it for one game because now we have to begin the post season,” ACH coach Scott Isaak said. “We have an outstanding bill against Northport and we have to come due and pay the account. The kids really seem to have some tremendous chemistry at work. Kids make that happen and we have good kids.”

ACH (13-7, 5-1) hosts Northport tomorrow in the first round of the Bi-County/Panorama District playoffs.

The Warriors, who have won seven of their last eight games, were led by Derek Isaak’s 23 points and Chad Carlquist’s 15 points to beat Odessa.

ACH led 27-11 at halftime.

Warden 57, River View 55

WARDEN — A freebie victory started the week and a 14-2 fourth quarter run ended it as the Warden Cougars moved into a second place tie in the South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) East.

Warden defeated previously-unbeaten league leaders River View 57-55 on Friday with the game-changing run.

Earlier in the week, the Cougars (10-8, 7-3) were granted a forfeit win against Kiona-Benton despite Warden losing in Benton City in January.

Ki-Be was penalized for using an ineligible coach during the teams’ first encounter on Jan. 24, thus Warden was granted the win.

Combine that with the upset of River View and Warden clinches a district playoff spot and is in the running for a top two seed.

“It feels really good since we were predicted to be at the lower end of the league,” Warden coach Wes Richins said.

“These boys have been together for a long time and when they play well we really play well. Hopefully we can peak here at the most important time of the year.”

Against River View (13-6, 10-1), the Cougars and River View battled back and forth before Warden overtook the visitors to hold on for the win.

Ty Jesse led Warden with 18 points while Nathan Brown scored 17 points and Jon Burkholder added 11 points.

“River View were looking to clinch the league title and it was nice to beat them and not allow them to do it on our home court,” Richins said. “We’ve won seven in a row at home and if we can get that two seed we would be able to host a district playoff game which would be nice.”

Warden travels to Royal today and hosts Wahluke on Thursday.

Two wins would clinch a second seed.

Wapato 75, Othello 67

WAPATO — Othello remains in eighth-place of the CWAC despite two losses this past weekend.

Othello lost 75-67 at Wapato on Saturday and 75-48 at East Valley the night before yet remain one-game ahead for the final CWAC playoff spot with four games left to play.

Against Wapato, Othello (5-11, 3-11) were led by Jeremy Cerrillo and Parker Davis as both scored 15 points while Jesse Espinoza and David Charles each registered 13 points.

In Yakima, Davis led the Huskies with eight points against East Valley.

East Valley 61, Quincy 54

YAKIMA — If the CWAC district playoffs began today the Quincy Jacks would be one of two-teams on the outs.

Last year’s Class 2A state quarterfinalists fell 61-54 at East Valley on Saturday, following a 76-60 loss at Grandview on Friday night.

The losses kept Quincy (2-14, 2-12) one game behind Othello for the eighth and last playoff spot.

Against East Valley, Jay Cedargreen scored 19 points to lead the Jacks.

In the loss at Grandview Quincy was led by Luke Grigg’s 20 points while Cedargreen chipped in with 13 points.

Royal 63, Wahluke 47

ROYAL — Marc Albertson scored 30 points, grabbed 18 rebounds, and blocked six shots to lead the Royal Knights to a 63-47 win over Wahluke on Saturday.

Despite the win, Royal (6-11, 3-7) was eliminated from SCAC district playoff contention.

Royal used a 15-2 first quarter to establish control against Wahluke and coasted to the win.

On Friday the Knights dropped a 45-38 decision at Columbia-Burbank.

Royal led 33-31 after three quarters before Burbank’s Nathan Roberts hit a pair of threes to spark a fourth quarter comeback.

Trevor Iverson led Royal with 13 points and Albertson added 11 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.