Chiefs fall to Davis Pirates

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake High School boys basketball team took one on the chin last night on the Chiefs home court, losing a league game to Davis, 63-52.

The loss drops the Chiefs record to 2-1 in the Big Nine.

"We threw the game away," coach John Hohman said. "We didn't execute our offense very well and had too many unforced turnovers."

The game got off to a slow start as Davis missed its first four shots and Moses Lake missed its first two, and turned the ball over twice in a span of two minutes.

Bryce Perez put the first points on the board with back-to-back buckets to give the Chiefs a 4-0 lead. Cliff Phillips hit one of two free throws to push the score to 5-2 in favor of the home team, but the Pirates fought back to take their first lead 10-9 off a fast break dunk by Davonte Luckett.

Easton Baker put Moses Lake back up 11-10, but a 3-points bucket by Deion Wright gave Davis a 13-11 lead at the end of the first eight minutes of action.

The Pirates Nikhil Lizotte drained a shot from behind the arch to start the second quarter and kick started a 14-8 run to put the visitors up 27-19 at the break.

The second half of action saw the teams play even ball, but Davis came out with the upper hand, out scoring Moses Lake 36-33 over the last 16 minutes to win the game.

"It was a frustrating loss," Hohman said. "We beat them in every category .. out rebounded them and shot better from the field and the free throw line. But we didn't take care of the ball and that hurt us."

Davis scored 30 points off the Chiefs turnovers and that was the difference in the game.  Perez led the way for Moses Lake with 19 points and four rebounds. Kevin Bennett pumped in 11 points and Phillips finished with seven.

The Chiefs get a chance to get back in the win column when they travel to Wenatchee Friday to take on the Panthers.

"Wenatchee is always tough at home," Hohman said. "We need to step up and get a road win and get back in the chase."