Soap Lake drops 2B state opener

SPOKANE — Their first trip to the state basketball tournament didn’t start in the most ideal fashion for the Soap Lake Eagles.

In yesterday’s Class 2B first-round game against White Swan, the Eagles came out sluggish and were rocked by an early 14-3 deficit en route to a 74-51 loss.

Soap Lake (13-11) weren’t prepared for the increased level of speed the Cougars (20-4) brought to the table and the early deficit was a reflection of that.

“They just ran us off the court in the first quarter,” Soap Lake coach Bill Pierce said. “They were pretty quick and they played pretty good defense. They stole the ball a few times and scored off of it.”

The second quarter saw the Eagles offense pick up behind the play of Kyler Moats (26 points) but they couldn’t put a dent in the deficit, trailing 42-31 at halftime.

“We scored but we only had two guys that really scored and the rest of the boys were very tentative,” Pierce said. “We didn’t want to get into a running game with them because they scored most of their baskets on transition layins and offensive putback.”

The intermission offered a welcome respite for Soap Lake who used the time to make adjustments that were apparent in the third quarter as the Eagles roared to within three, 48-45.

“We came out and played better defense and we got the ball more inside so Kyler could give us some shots,” Pierce said.

Moats scored 11 of his points in the quarter.

But the comeback and the work to stay in the game took its toll as White Swan ran out to a 26-6 fourth quarter to put the game away.

“We just ran out of gas,” Pierce said. “They played real hard in the third quarter but didn’t have enough to finish out the game.”

Moats finished 11-of-17 from the field and added 13 rebounds. Zach Allen chipped in with 11 points for Soap Lake.

White Swan’s Cory Williams led all scorers with 27 points on 12-of-15 from the field.

Soap Lake played Bear Creek (19-2) this morning in a consolation loser out contest.

Bear Creek lost to Pe Ell 65-59 in their first round game.

A win would keep Soap Lake alive where they would play the winner of Waitsburg-Prescott (14-7) and Life Christian (17-12) in a consolation semifinal at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

The game can be heard on KULE 730 AM radio which will broadcast the BSports.com feed.