Lions roar, beat Wilson Creek 86-9

SOAP LAKE - The Moses Lake Christian Academy (MLCA) boys basketball team was firing on all cylinders last night as the Lions put a hurting Wilson Creek, 86-9 in the first round of the 1B Central Washington District playoffs.

"We wanted to come out of the gate full throttle in the first quarter and continue that in the second quarter," coach Duke Wood said. "And we did just that. We forced 18 first half turnovers, which led to many easy baskets at the other end."

MLCA jumped out to a 27-2 lead at the end of the first quarter of action, and took a 51-7 lead into the locker room at intermission.

The Lions continued their dominance in the second half of play, outscoring the Devils 35-2 to win going away.

"We sat the majority of our starter near the end of the second quarter and got our bench players some much needed game time experience," Wood said. "It was nice to see them set up and play well because we are going to need a deep bench throughout the post-season.'

Four Lions scored in double figures on the night. Joe Timofeyev, Lowell Kirkwood and Paul Torres had 15 points each in the win. Quade Godfrey added 12 points, and  Braeley McNamara was chairman of the boards for the Lions with nine rebounds.

"Braeley had been ineligible the past few weeks," Wood said. "So it was nice to have him back on the court. Seven of his nine rebound were on the offensive end."

The win over Wilson Creek puts the Lions in a battle for the No. 1 seed going to regionals with rival Cascade Christian Academy tonight.

"They got by Mansfield tonight, 59-50, but they are a tough quality opponent and we need to bring our A game to beat them," Wood said. "We played them last year for the district title and beat them in overtime, so it should be an exciting game and we expect it to come down to the wire again."