Lions fall short in big loss

Sunnyside 61, Moses Lake Christian Academy 36; Wilson Creek 66, Thorp 12

SUNNYSIDE — They gave it all they had but in the end the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions basketball team could not keep up with the third-ranked Sunnyside Christian Knights, falling 61-36 on Tuesday night.

The Lions (10-4) fell behind 20-9 against the hosts which Academy coach Duke Wood believes may be even better than their ranking implies.

“They are well above that,” Wood said. “That’s a community college starting lineup. Their 6-5 guys were like 260, 270 pounds. We zoned, we manned, we pressed and it still ended up looking like a community college playing the Muppets. We even tried to play six guys at a time. The kids played their heart out but when you are outmanned that much it can be just so hard to overcome.”

According to Wood, the Knights’ starting lineup boasted players 6-foot-6, 6-foot-5, 6-foot-5, and 6-foot-2.

Yet, the Lions were within striking range, trailing 30-16 at halftime.

Then, Sunnyside Christian blew the game open with a 26-10 third quarter.

Issac Murrell led Moses Lake Christian Academy with 11 points, while Joe Timofeyev chipped in with 10 points.

“There were some positives we definitely got out of this,” Wood said. “Were 10 of 12 from the free-throw line and committed only five turnovers in the game so that is definitely good.”

Next up is their Friday league game against Pateros.

“Basically we wanted to see where we stood,” Wood said.  “This puts us in a situation where we can see different talent throughout the state besides our league. This tells us where we stand and there is still some stuff we can work on.”

Wilson Creek 66, Thorp 12

WILSON CREEK — An exercise in efficiency and performing at their level was enough for the Wilson Creek Devils to pull away from Thorp 66-12 in a 1B North Central Washington league game last night.

Austin Reyes scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Derek Fredere added 15 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, eight steals, and two blocked shots.

Jacob Treat added 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Devils and Patrick Trepanier contributed seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists and four steals.