Moses Lake girls basketball racks up two wins

MOSES LAKE - The Chiefs have served noticed they intend to challenge for top honors in the Big Nine Conference as they opened league play with two home wins.

Moses Lake found little resistance from Wenatchee Friday as they blew by the Panthers 64-35, then won an overtime thriller, 58-54, against Eastmont Saturday.

"I thought the girls played well in both games," coach Matt Strophy said. "Going 2-0 is a nice way to start league play."

Moses Lake 64

Wenatchee 35

The game against the Panthers came together just as Strophy envisioned after he found a weakness while scouting the team when Wenatchee played Lake City last week.

"Our plan was to attack theirs strengths ... their point guard and post player," he said. "We knew they played really aggressive, so we took advantage of that and got them into early foul trouble."

The plan worked to perfection as the Chiefs went to the charity stripe 40 times and sank 31 free throws on the game.

"We shot 78 percent from the line," he said. "We struggled with our free throw shooting last year, so that is something we've been work hard in practice and it paid off."

Emily Olson led the offensive attack for Moses Lake with 12 points. Avery Clark added 11, Jessie Lorea and McKenna Walker pumped in 7 each, Sadie Nielsen had 6, Keiley Garcia, Hallee Bishop and Kaitlyn Stevens scored 4 points, and Alysha Overland, Courtney Kunjara, Karina LaFave and Selina Koon finished with 3 each.

Moses Lake 58

Eastmont girls 54

Three Chiefs scored in double figures as Moses Lake made it two in a row with the win over the Wildcats Saturday. Emily Olson led the way again for the Chiefs with 13 points. Jessie Lorea added 11 and Keiley Garcia finished with 10.

"Emily, who is a returning starter and an All-League player last year has been our consistent go-to player so far this year," Strophy said. "But everyone on our team can score."

Strophy said he got a chance to rest his starters in the four quarter of the lopsided win over Wenatchee, and was hoping that would benefit the team when they faced Eastmont.

But things didn't work out that way initially as the Chiefs trailed for most of the first half of play.

"They came out with more energy than we did to start with," he said. "But we went on a 7-0 with Emily scoring all seven to put us up at the half."

Moses built and maintained a 10-point lead for most of the third quarter, and was up by six going into the fourth. But the Chiefs  had trouble sinking their free throws and allowed the Wildcats to stay in the game.

"We should've been up by 20 points," Strophy said,. "We ended up surrendering the lead as Eastmont regained their composure. Fortunately for us, Emily hit a 3-pointer to tie the game and send it into overtime."

The Chiefs found their shooting touch from the line in the extra period and outscored the Wildcats 11-7 for the win.

Moses Lake is back on the court Friday when the Chiefs travel to Davis to take on the Pirates.

They are back at home Saturday with a game against Sunnyside.

"They are two tough opponents," Strophy said. Davis is 2-0 and Sunnyside's (1-1) only league loss is to Davis. But the girls will be ready to play."

The game against Sunnyside is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m.