Moses Lake on to state

KENNEWICK — It’s one thing to excel when expected to, but it’s another thing entirely to achieve greatness when no one believes it possible.

That may be why the 2010 Moses Lake Chiefs girls basketball team’s entry into the Class 4A State Tournament this week in Tacoma may be the program’s finest moment.

Facing elimination for the second consecutive week the Chiefs bumped their record to 4-0 in Loser Out games this post-season with a 48-41 win over Walla Walla on Saturday in the ConAgra Foods Regional Tournament state qualifying game at the Toyota Center to book passage to play in the season’s final weekend for a third consecutive year.

Moses Lake (15-12) won 58-43 on Friday over Southridge to set up the showdown with Walla Walla with the third and final state bid from the Region on the line.

“Two years ago making it for the first time in school history will always make it a special place,” Chiefs’ coach Matt Strophy said. “But the first two years we expected to go as one of the better teams in the state. But to go this year is so much sweeter since we had so many questions coming out of the summer. We went with a group that many felt were not even a top district team and proved we were one of the top three teams in the region. We were able to grow and mature all season which makes it more gratifying.”

Moses Lake started the season 1-6 before turning things around to go 8-4 in Big 9 Columbia League play and 14-6 over the last 20 games.

Still before entering District tournament play two weeks ago, Moses Lake had failed to defeat a team with a winning record. Since then they have gone 4-2 with all wins coming with a win or go-home status at stake.

“I don’t know if we could pin-point one certain thing where things turned around but we’ve really emphasized responsibility, unity, and togetherness,” Strophy said. “As we’ve grown together and come together its a huge process. That unity is finally starting to happen where they know each other’s roles and strength and weaknesses and that chemistry is such a huge factor.”

What may have also aided his squad is having had the experience of this type of tournament and the heightened intensity.

Junior guard Jordan Loera has been key on all three state teams while senior Tiffany Morris and Megan Sutherland and a few other juniors have been a part of the experience as JV call-ups or members of the varsity team during playoff time.

“I think its the experience of being there and knowing where to go in terms of scheduling,” Strophy said. “That pays dividends against teams like Southridge who hadn’t been there or a Walla Walla with a new coach. We had players who were call ups that didn’t play much but they were there too and were able to experience the same things.”

Against Walla Walla the Chiefs reversed a 54-37 decision from the team’s first meeting in the district playoff opener on Feb. 17.

One key difference was the appearance of the Chiefs’ 6-foot-5 junior Kayla Bernsen who missed the first battle between the teams.

One key difference was holding Walla Walla post Vicki Reardon to three points after she scored 13 in their earlier win over the Chiefs.

“Kayla helped make up that 17-point difference in many different ways,” Strophy said. “Take away her Reardon’s 10 and add Kayla’s seven there the difference. And our guards did a good job on Jill McDaniels who is their best three-point shooter in my opinion.”

The defense also came up big in mountain a fourth-quarter comeback.

“The defense set the tone for us with us down by six entering the fourth quarter but that’s where the experience becomes a factor,” Strophy said. “We did the things we need to do to come back and hold them down. And to see Jordan score 27 points after a six-point game was important for us. She willed us to victory with 12-points in the fourth quarter.”

Loera’s performance — 27 points, nine rebounds, and six steals — put a cap on a season where she was now the focal point, the leader of a team which had lost numerous Chiefs to graduation and college ball over the past two seasons.

“I think this is just important as the other ones but so many people doubted us,” Loera said. “It just proves that we can play at this level and that was the exciting part.”

Further indication of the team’s improvement was the win against Southridge.

With Loera struggling, Bernsen (21 points), Lacey Padilla (14 points), and Morris (11 points) picked up the slack in sparking the win.

“The difference was our non-Jordan Loera players stepped up,” Strophy said. “It’s huge with Kayla scoring 21 points and if I can get that out of her nine times out of 10 she is a D-1 prospect. Lacey and Tiffany both contributed with Jordan struggling and that’s huge. Also jumping on them early set the tone for us not trailing the entire game.”

Now the Chiefs will prepare to keep their momentum heading to Tacoma, where they open the state finals with a first-round game on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. against fifth-ranked Bellarmine Prep (17-6) out of Tacoma.

In their same quarter of the draw, Marysville-Pilchuck (17-7) takes on Seattle Garfield (14-9) in a 7 p.m. first-round game.

The two winners would play in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. while the two losers would match up in the consolation bracket that same day at 2 p.m.

“We struggled at the beginning of the season and we worked to improve together,” Loera said. “I’m extremely happy and it’s amazing since a lot of these girls didn’t have a lot of varsity experience before and we all helped each other out to get on the same page and play together.”