The Phoenix on fire in victory

Columbia Basin Secondary School 74, Wilson Creek 55; Moses Lake Christian Academy 94, Easton 24; Soap Lake 55, Kittitas 38; Ellensburg 64, Othello 55

MOSES LAKE — Instead of more and faster the Columbia Basin Secondary School had less and speedier in its showdown against Wilson Creek last night.

Despite lacking in size the host Phoenix took on the visiting Devils in their 1B North Central Washington league showdown and turned on the jets to pull away for a 74-55 win.

“They’ve got  lot of speed and their transition was hurting us,” Wilson Creek coach Keith Jensen said. “They also hit a lot of threes that hurt us. Their speed and quickness really helped them push the ball pretty fast.”

Wilson Creek (4-4, 2-3) pushed the ball inside continually against the physically smaller Columbia Basin Secondary squad scoring from medium to short range only to see the Phoenix counter with an outside bomb.

The Phoenix (5-3, 3-1) hit nine three-pointers to Wilson Creek’s two, outscoring the Devils 27-6 from beyond the arc.

“We were able to get up and down the floor a little bit,” Phoenix coach James Shank said. “We also have a lot of guys who can shoot from the outside and it’s hard to guard that many shooters. They could score on us from the inside but it became a game where they scored two and we would score three. If they came out on our shooters we could dribble drive pretty easy and take it to the rack or kick it out.”

Columbia Basin Secondary led 19-15 after the first quarter and gradually wore out the admittedly fast Devils as the game pushed forward, leading 38-29 at halftime and 50-42 at the end of three quarters.

“Against this team they have us on speed and we would have been better slowing down the pace,” Jensen said. “We have some decent speed but not what they’ve got.”

Austin Reyes led Wilson Creek with 18 points and 12 rebounds, Jacob Treat added 17 points and eight rebounds, and Derek Fredere contributed 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Phoenix were spearheaded by Kayleb Jensen’s 25 points, Eric Curtiss’ 23 points, and 11 points each for David Cantu and Mike Northup.

Northup also pulled down 13 rebounds.

“I never felt comfortable until 30 seconds were left in the game,” Shank said. “Wilson Creek never give up and Reyes and Treat are strong men who never stop playing hard.”

Moses Lake Christian Academy 94, Easton 24

EASTON — Devastating. That’s all anyone could say about the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions’ first quarter performance Tuesday night at Easton.

The Lions outscored their hosts 35-0 and used that awesome eight-minute display of basketball to coast to a 94-24 win.

“Easton is very young with eighth and ninth-graders and very inexperienced,” Lions’ coach Duke Wood said. “We were too big, fast, and strong. We came out like a hurricane and that was big. I didn’t want our team to take them for granted and we didn’t.”

The Academy (7-2, 4-1) led 51-9 at halftime and 74-18 after three quarters.

Keith Kagele led the Lions with 14 points, while Jonny Roberts scored 12 points. Pierson Fode had 10 points, Joe Timofeyev added 10 pounts and seven assists, while Quade Godfrey (10 rebounds) and Lowell Kirkwood (eight rebounds) led on the boards.

“I was able to play everybody and all 12 players scored and each one scored a basket,” Wood said. “It was great to get the younger kids time. They work hard at practiced so its nice to get them in a game to reward them.”

Soap Lake 55, Kittitas 38

KITTITAS — Soap Lake is starting to get that clean, fresh feeling of seeing the fruits of their labor pay off.

The Eagles’ basketball team travelled to Kittitas last night and registered a solid 55-38 win.

“We just started passing the ball around better and started getting better shots,” Soap Lake coach Bill Pierce said. “We pressed them pretty bad and forced them into a lot of turnovers.”

Soap Lake (4-5, 3-1 in 2B Bi-County League) trailed 14-11 after the first quarter before the press began to pay off and they captured a 23-22 lead by intermission.

A 19-9 third quarter for Soap Lake would ultimately help the Eagles pull away.

Kyler Moats scored 16 points and Zach Allen contributed 10 points in the winning Soap Lake cause.

“If we keep playing like we did tonight we’ll be okay,” Pierce said. “We’re passing the ball, taking good shots, and fast breaking pretty well. They are starting to play to expectations but we have a ways to go still. You want perfection but you never get it.”

Ellensburg 64, Othello 55

ELLENSBURG — The Huskies of Othello fell 64-55 in overtime at Ellensburg last night.

Othello (3-4, 3-4 in Central Washington Athletic Conference) led 16-11 after the first quarter and held a 43-40 lead after three quarters before Ellensburg (6-3, 4-3) forced overtime.

No other details were available.