Chiefs keep winning ugly; Lady Lions tame Wilson Creek

Wilson Creek's Holly Wilson (21) tries to break down the Moses Lake Christian Academy's defense on Friday night. Wilson Creek fell 54-13.

by Alan Dale & Herald Sports Writer
| January 11, 2011 5:00 AM

MOSES LAKE - Getting back into Big 9 action, the Moses Lake Chiefs girls basketball team set the tone early against visiting Eisenhower Friday night.

Eisenhower got off the bus from Yakima and would ultimately find themselves down 13-3 after the first quarter and the Chiefs would methodically pull away for a 61-37 win.

"Its good to get back into the swing of things," Moses Lake head coach Matt Strophy said. "I don't think we played to our potential throughout the game which is a focus for us in games with teams like Eisenhower. No offense to them but we should have won better than by what we did."

Moses Lake ( ) remained atop of the Big 9 with the victory.

"I am glad we are back into league play," Strophy said. "We will get our feet back under us with this game and against Davis. Its hard to argue with a 24-point win but we allowed them to do things that they shouldn't. We have to be more disciplined than we were on Friday night.

The Cadets kept within striking range after a tighter second quarter, trailing 24-13 at intermission.

But, Moses Lake would outscore Eisenhower 15-7 in the third quarter to bump its lead to 39-20 and in essence put the win in the deep freeze.

"I am pleased to see that performance especially with our defense stepping up," Strophy said. "Frustrating thing about that was that we had to press them to get that type of lead and we shouldn't have had to do that. We were hoping to set the tone with halfcourt play and we weren't able to do that. We can't do that against better teams."

Leading the way for Moses Lake were Jordan Loera who scored 18 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists, and swiped three steals, Kayla

Bernsen and her 16-point, 10-rebound output, while Kyleigh Gamez added 11 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and four steals.

MOSES LAKE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 54

WILSON CREEK 13

MOSES LAKE - Round one goes to the Academy.

On Friday night, the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lady Lions resoundingly announced their intent to take the role of North Central Washington 2B heavies after their 54-13 win over the Wilson Creek Lady Devils in a contest of what was once two unbeaten league squads.

Despite the hearty win, Academy head coach Bryce McPartland was still left wanting.

"I don't know what it is about Wilson Creek, but we never seem to play them the way I'd like," McPartland said. "They're big, strong, physical kids for sure, but they just seem to give us all sorts of problems. Every time we've played them, for the past couple of years, I feel like I need to go back to the drawing board."

That may be the case in some instances, but maybe not so much on the defensive side of the ball as they didn't allow more than three points in any of the first three quarters, including a shut out in the third stanza.

The Academy led 24-6 at halftime and 38-6 by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Offensively, the Lady Lions (9-2, 3-0) missed multiple close range shots which could have made things even dicier for Wilson Creek.

"We have to finish better," McPartland said. "The teams we want to be playing at state will not give us endless opportunities to crash the offensive boards and we have to make those shots count."

Moses Lake Christian Academy were led by Rachel Verhage's 20 points and 10 rebounds and the triple-double of McKenna Walker who finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 steals, while also dishing out five assists.

"McKenna and Rachel did a nice job of holding down the fort while we were struggling on offense," McPartland said. "We couldn't hit the broad side of a barn tonight. We scored 54 points, but it felt like five."

The Lady Lions outrebounded Wilson Creek (3-6, 3-1) 39-18 while they also forced 39 Lady Devils turnovers.

On Saturday, the Academy's defense kept up its intensity in a 48-20 win at Wilbur-Creston.

The Academy jumped out to a 19-1 lead after the first quarter and slowly pulled away.

"We came out of the gates with great energy and fire," McPartland said. "We've been working to develop an attitude for the girls, an attitude that, if nothing else, they have tremendous appreciation for all the work and time that they've invested in their games. We asked them to play as though it was their job to show that all that effort wasn't wasted."

Rachel Verhage scored 15 points to lead the Academy, Madison Yamane added 11 points, and Melissa Verhage finished with 10 points.

Rachel Verhage also led the Lady Lions with nine rebounds.

"We still need to impress upon our players that the game is longer than eight minutes," McPartland said. "Wilbur-Creston did not roll over, despite the deficit and the rest of the game was very much a dogfight."

Holly Wilson led Wilson Creek with six points.