Three rivalries squared off Saturday

EPHRATA — Spectators may not have seen it early on in the Ephrata Lady Tigers and Quincy Lady Jacks basketball game Saturday night, but the hosts would make a difference an hour later with their early effort.

That’s because Ephrata infected rivals Quincy with a heavy dose of defensive pressure that ultimately took its toll in the Lady Tigers’ 50-32 win.

Quincy (5-5, 3-5 in Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) play) trailed 12-10 after a ferocious first quarter to only see their offense dip to totals of five, nine, and eight points in the preceding periods, despite having multiple good looks at the hoop.

“We try to create defensive pressure the entire game,” Ephrata coach Aaron Ross said. “Even if their shots are good looks we still try to wear them down so those shots in the fourth quarter aren’t going to hit. If they hit one or two of those open looks from three it is a different game but our pressure made a difference.”

The Lady Tigers (5-5, 4-4) capitalized in the game’s middle quarters outscoring Quincy 17-5 and 16-9, behind some timely outside shooting and multiple contributions.

Nine different players scored for Ephrata.

“That’s the nice about our team since we have a whole bunch of people who can contribute,” Ross said. “Rotating a bunch of people in and keeping the players fresh is really kind of nice.”

Quincy coach Cully Donovan recognized the stable of athletes Ross has and said it gave his squad a chance to see what his needs to do to take the next step.

“It’s Ephrata and there are no excuses for us not playing well,” Donovan said. “Ephrata is a deep group of kids and are very athletic. It shows us where we need to go from here and how to handle the pressure better next time.”

Abby Smith led Ephrata with 14 points and eight rebounds while Kelsey Yenney had 10 points and five rebounds.

Quincy was led by Dayanna Lopez’s 11 points.

Ephrata hopes the win could help them cure their bug-a-boo of up-and-down play.

“Our consistency is something we’re working on especially the mental part of being able to compete at a high level every night,” Ross said. “We’re trying to get them mentally ready to focus on being ready to compete. We need to put the last game behind us and move on to the next one. We’ve got time to get it fixed before the end of the year.”

Donovan thinks Quincy may still be in the thick of things by the end of the season as teams vie for postseason spots.

“I think we could make a push,” Donovan said. “We’ve shown we can play with teams, we just need to be consistent and find that high level of play for 32 minutes. Right now we’re too up and down.”

Both teams came into the game off losses.

Quincy fell 64-34 at Wapato on Friday night, while Ephrata dropped a heartbreaking 37-35 decision at Othello.

The Lady Tigers were looking at overtime when Othello’s Tiffany Martinez hit a follow-up with less than a second to go to give her Huskies the win.

Moses Lake Christian Academy 62, Columbia Basin Secondary 9

MOSES LAKE — Taking care of business, the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lady Lions finished a methodical 62-9 win at Columbia Basin Secondary on Saturday.

The Academy (8-3, 3-2 in 1B North Central Washington) sprinted out to a 22-0 lead and never looked back.

“I felt good overall,” Academy coach Bryce McPartland said. “We talked about how to avoid the slow start. We used this game as a springboard to really push it out in the first quarter and put the game away in the first eight minutes and we did.”

Kristina Firouzi led the Lions with 15 points, while Susan Timofeyev added 13 points, Rachel Verhage recorded 12 points, 13 rebounds, and seven steals, and Melissa Verhage had 10 points and nine rebounds.

The Columbia Basin Secondary Phoenix (0-8) were led by Mariah Rippy’s five points.

Royal 56, Warden 30

WARDEN — Two teams needing a win played a game decided by the efforts of Leslie Brown.

The Royal Lady Knight 5-10 senior scored 33 points as her squad walked out of the host Warden’s gym with a 56-30 win on Saturday night.

She also added 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals for Royal (3-9, 2-3 in South Central Athletic Conference) to aid the victory over the Cougars (1-12, 0-5).

“She put us on her back and she was amazing,” Royal coach Brock Anderson said. “She’s 5-10 and long and can run the court. She finishes and can shoot the three and anything else on the perimeter. I think she is a very tough matchup and they played a lot of man last night and they didn’t have anyone who could guard her but not many teams can one-on-one or keep her from getting her shot off.”

Maggie Leal helped Brown with 15 rebounds as Royal pulled away in the second half after holding a 26-14 halftime lead.

“We just didn’t play well,” Warden coach Todd Kisler said. “They wanted it more than we did. They didn’t do anything different. We just didn’t hustle at times, didn’t box out and gave up some easy rebounds. We got beat.

“(Brown)’s a good player yeah. She plays hard and she can move without the basketball and moves well with the ball. She has a great shot from anywhere on the court.”

With the win, Royal keeps their post season hopes alive and records their second straight win following a 46-33 triumph over Wahluke the previous evening.

“We’re 2-3 in the league so we are a little more optimistic that way,” Anderson said. “That was by far the best game for us this year. I been coaching 14 years and been to Warden about eight times with different schools and never left smiling so it was nice to finally get a win at that place.”

Warden was led by Kacey Kisler’s 12 points while Emma Bisnett had eight points and 11 rebounds.