Lions win district championship; three others alive
WENATCHEE — Two berths to the Class 1B state tournament were on the line and two other teams found a way to stay alive.
The 1B North Central Washington District Playoffs continued yesterday at Wenatchee High School and the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions took home the win in the tournament championship final.
Columbia Basin Secondary boys now plays Pateros tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. for the second state final berth from the district.
Meanwhile the Lady Lions and Wilson Creek play at noon Saturday for a trip to Yakima and the 1B state finals.
Boys’ District Final
Moses Lake Christian Academy 33, Pateros 31
Trailing 19-10 at halftime the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions stormed back in the second half to tie the game at 29-29 with just under five minutes left.
Then behind their stingy defense, a late shot by Stefan McNamara to take the lead and a failed last possesion by Pateros, the Lions had their district title in a 33-31 win last night.
The win propels the Lions (17-5) to the Class 1B State Tournament in Yakima next week.
Pateros (19-4) now plays Columbia Basin Secondary School for the second bid out of the North Central Washington League.
No other details were available at press time.
Boys’ Loser Out Semifinal
Columbia Basin Secondary 69, Mansfield 67
Despite coming off a tough loss three nights earlier to the Lions and being without their head coach, the Columbia Basin Secondary School found a way to persevere last night.
By doing so, the Phoenix are one win away from their first ever 1B state tournament appearance.
In their Loser Out Semifinal, the Phoenix rallied from an early deficit to beat Mansfield 69-67.
Even though he couldn’t watch the game after being ejected in the tournament opener, Columbia Basin Secondary coach James Shank knew how his team found a way to win.
“We started out flat going down 15-3 before we got hot,” Shank said. “Things were pretty even and nip-and-tuck all the way. Our coaches did a great job tonight working with our boys.”
The Phoenix (13-7) scored the first quarter’s last 10 points to get within two and from there the teams went back-and-forth before Mansfield (7-15) led 30-28 going into the intermission.
The normally hot shooting Phoenix made only three three-pointers all game.
“A lot of our points were in the paint and with Kayleb Jensen getting to the rim, hitting his free throws and getting the and ones,” Shank said. “It was a reversal of our typical Phoenix games with getting a lot of our scoring inside.”
The Phoenix built their lead up in the fourth quarter and held on for the narrow win.
Jensen led all scorers with 29 points while Josh Conner added 18 points and David Cantu finished with nine points.
Next up is a date with a chance to make history tomorrow against the Billy Goats.
“They’re so physical and we’ll have to match that physicality by getting the dirty work done,” Shank said. “I feel like if we can come out and have some confidence going into Saturday and play a little more physical we can make the game pretty tough.”
Girls’ District Final
Pateros 41, Moses Lake Christian Academy 39
Youth is a wonderful thing in sports.
It provides hope and dreams of later greatness.
Sometimes it can also lead to those near-misses.
But in the case of the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lady Lions, the 41-39 near-miss loss to Pateros last night in the District Championship Final may have been heartbreaking in one breath while heartwarming in the next.
“It was a youth game like you would not believe,” Lady Lions coach Bryce McPartland said. “But I will tell you that you may walk out of the locker room where you are disappointed you lost, but ecstatic about how the girls played. They left their guts on the floor and used up every ounce of energy.”
The Lady Lions (14-8) led 12-9 after the first quarter and 18-11 at halftime against a Pateros (18-5) team which had won the teams’ previous encounters by 26 and nine points.
“The girls came out like they had not come out in any game this season,” McPartland said. “They got out after it and didn’t give up anything easy.”
However using freshman guard Madison Yamane — the team’s strongest player — on Pateros’ post stalwart Lorrie Mattson may have worked for the first half but backfired in the third quarter.
Yamane, who held Mattson to two first half points, was called for her third foul with six-plus minutes left in the quarter.
“We also didn’t have two good ballhandlers on the floor,” McPartland said. “And Pateros’ press hurt us.”
Pateros took a 24-22 lead at the end of the quarter.
From there, the Nannies would build a four to five-point lead until a Susan Timofeyev steal and layup cut the Lady Lions’ deficit to 41-39 with 15 seconds left.
Pateros would inbound the ball and manage to run out the clock.
“Our situational awareness was very poor and we had no more timeouts,” McPartland said.
The Academy’s Kristina Firouzi led the Lady Lions with 11 points while Timofeyev and Rachel Verhage each finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Mattson finished with a game-high 16 points.
Now the Lady Lions will play Wilson Creek for the second and last 1B State Finals bid from the league.
Pateros has already qualified for a trip to Yakima.
Wilson Creek fell to the Academy 45-37 in the tournament opener.
“We’ll probably have a light practice and hope we can come up Saturday and play hard,” McPartland said.
Girls’ Loser Out Semifinal
Wilson Creek 39, Mansfield 20
The Lady Devils of Wilson Creek lived to see at least one more day of their season due to their 39-20 Loser Out Semifinal win over Mansfield.
“The thing we need to be aware of is that they are faster than we are,” Wilson Creek coach Dennis Treat said. “We will have to work on limiting turnovers, getting back on defense, and getting the ball inside.”
Wilson Creek (12-7) used an attacking man-to-man defense to get after Mansfield from the opening tip to lead 9-2 after the first quarter.
“We had emphasized playing aggressive on-the-ball defense and to make life difficult for any entry passes,” Treat said.
Wilson Creek led 21-13 at halftime and behind another solid 9-2 quarter — in the third — built up a strong 30-15 cushion with eight minutes left to play.
Despite the teams splitting the season series in two hotly contested games, Treat felt his squad could pull off such a dominating win.
“I thought we had a good chance to win,” Treat said. “Mansfield has struggled a bit the last few games offensively, so we thought that would give us a good chance if we played aggressively and were able to generate any offense at all.”
Kali Winfrey led Wilson Creek with 12 points while Ksenja Fredere continued her strong all-around play as of late, with eight points, nine steals, seven assists, and six rebounds.