MLCA girls remain unbeaten

ODESSA - The Moses Lake Christian Academy (MLCA) girls basketball team kept its unbeaten record in tact with a 56-47 non-league win over Odessa-Harrington Tuesday.

The victory improves the Lady Lions record to 6-0 overall.

"It was a tremendous road win for a short-handed team against Odessa-Harrington, which is an improving team that will prove to be very strong before the season is over," coach Bryce McPartland said. "We're very proud of the girls' effort."

The game was added to the Lions slate a week ago to allow MLCA to have a complete 20 game schedule. And because of the late pickup, the MLCA were unable to dress their full roster for the game against the Titans.

"We had three kids in Hawaii, including two starters Madison and Taylor Yamane," McPartland said. "So we went into this game with only five available bodies; Abby Garrett, McKenna Walker, Mikaela Loudon, Anna Yarbro and Dani Sandberg. Maddie Tudor is out for five weeks with a broken foot."

MLCA jumped out to a 14-8 lead after the first quarter of action, and was up 28-18 at the break. The teams battled back and forth in the second half of play with Odessa-Harrington besting the Lions by one point, 29-28.

"We played four-on-five over the final four minutes of the game clinging to a lead which we saw shrink to only two points," McPartland said. "Mikaela Loudon had a monster game, setting a career high with 15 points. She hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer at the end of the first quarter that seemed to really deflate the Titans."

Anna Yarbro finished with nine points and eight rebounds for MLCA. The Lions hit 29 of 40 shots from the charity stripe.

MLCA is back in action when they host their Christmas tournament  Dec. 27 and 28. The first game on Tuesday gets underway at 3 p.m. The boys play at 4:30.