Lions fall at Pateros, Warden bounces back

Pateros 44, Moses Lake Christian Academy 37; Warden 52, Highland 41; Cascade 61, Royal 49; Oroville 52, Soap Lake 47; ACH 68, Sprague-Harrington 42

PATEROS — An early season battle for 1B North Central Washington league supremacy broke out on Saturday and the hosts took round one in their 44-37 overtime win over the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions.

“It was all defense,” Lions’ coach Duke Wood said. “It was a battle. They are big and they are physical. I tell you what, we played very well defensively and so did they. Everybody was closing out perfectly. Nothing was going inside for most of the game. It was the first time I’d been in a game like that. There were getting shots but they were all tough shots.”

The Lions (4-2, 1-1) held the game’s biggest lead at six points early in the second quarter but over the last 20 minutes of the game the lead never rose above four for either team until the final moments.

Moses Lake Christian Academy led 19-17 at halftime and 24-23 with one quarter remaining.

With the Lions up 32-30 and in possession of the ball with :30 left, Wood’s squad looked to milk the clock and get a good shot but instead took one too quick, missed, and Pateros had a chance to tie.

The hosts would succed with an offensive rebound putback with :13 remaining.

The Lions’ were then called for travelling with four seconds left but Joe Timofeyev would steal Pateros’ chance for a last second win and his three-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed out, setting up overtime.

Moses Lake Christian Academy would head into the overtime without post man Johnny Roberts and moments later their other inside force Stefan McNamara joined him on the bench with five fouls and Pateros went to work.

They continually looked to exploit the Lions’ weakened middle and manipulated the situation to earn 14 free throw attempts, making 10 to pull away, according to Wood.

Timofeyev led the Lions with 17 points and nine rebounds while McNamara was held to eight points and six rebounds.

“We lost to ACH and Pateros who were both ranked and we played with both of them,” Wood said. “We’re seeing that we can play with anybody, but this was a league game and it was big. We tried to sneak one and we let this slip through out fingers. We have to win games like this on the road.”

Warden 52, Highland 41

WARDEN — Following up two heart-breaking last-second defeats in two successive nights is tough enough for any team.

But when the Warden Cougars were faced with an identical scenario only three days later they chose to make amends and then some.

Despite losing a 36-28 lead in the fourth quarter the Cougars erupted for a 16-5 run to blow past visiting Highland 52-41 on Saturday night.

Warden (4-6) watched as Highland score the first eight points of the fourth quarter to knot the game up at 36.

“We went cold at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Warden coach Wes Richins said. “We decided then we would rise to the challenge rather than coast and we did. I was very pleased about that since we’ve been struggling to close out teams and finish out games.”

Warden led throughout the game and were given a boost early by Eric Bates’ performance in the paint.

“In the first half they played us man-to-man and they had trouble matching up with Eric,” Richins said. “He scored 11 of his points in the first half and he did real well.”

Bates finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, and two blocked shots.

Ty Jesse led Warden with 15 points while Nathan Brown chipped in with 12 points and four steals.

Jesse and Brown each hit a three-pointer and Nate Stott tallied four points during a decisive 10-0 run that broke the 36-36 deadlock and gave the Cougars the momentum they needed to pull away.

Cascade 61, Royal 49

CASCADE — The band Queen said it best.

“Under pressure.”

It could be the theme for the Royal Knights’ basketball team all season if more games take shape like their 61-49 loss at Cascade on Saturday.

“We were right there in the game and the turnovers hurt us badly,” Royal coach Pete Christensen said. “They were running a high pressure 2-3 trapping defense that Zillah ran against us. Our guys were just panicking and throwing the ball away. The more other teams hear about that the more we’ll see it.”

Royal (3-5) trailed 45-41 going into the final quarter before turnovers made at key moments undermined any chance for a Knights’ road win.

Marc Albertson led Royal with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Trevor Iverson and Matt Barger each scored 12 points.

Barger also grabbed 11 rebounds.

Oroville 52, Soap Lake 47

OROVILLE — Unable to shake off the rust from a nearly two-week layoff, the Soap Lake Eagles’ basketball team fell short at Oroville Saturday night in a 52-47 loss.

Tied with their hosts late in the third quarter the Eagles (1-5, 0-1) couldn’t get over the hump in their 2B North Central Washington league opener.

“They just shot better than we did, we just couldn’t buy a basket,” Bill Pierce, Soap Lake’s coach said. “The layoff hurt us a bit. We didn’t play good defense at times and didn’t rebound very well.”

Kyler Moats led the Eagles with 24 points and Zach Allen chipped in with eight points.

ACH 68, Sprague-Harrington 42

SPRAGUE — Almira/Coulee-Hartline won its second consecutive 1B Bi-County contest with a 68-42 win at Sprague-Harrington on Saturday.

The Warriors (6-4, 2-0) jumped out to a 21-5 lead after the first quarter and exploded out to a commanding 39-14 halftime lead.

“We just played hard and came out and got after it,” ACH coach Scott Isaak said. “They didn’t wait to see if anyone else wanted to throw a punch. They jumped on them and stayed on them. It was nice.”

Derek Isaak led ACH with 25 points.

Tyler Gregson added 15 points, while Cody Jess contributed 10 points.