Moses Lake boys drop road game

PASCO -  Alex Babinchuk and  Miquiyah Zamora scored 21 points each, and Zach Mendoza added 13 as the Riverhawks rolled past the Chiefs 84-49 Monday.

"This was tough loss for us," coach John Hohman said. "I really thought we were moving forward as a team, but obviously we are not playing very consistent ball right now."

The game was competitive in the first quarter of action as Moses Lake trailed 13-12.

But a two point output for the Chiefs in the second quarter was the teams undoing as Chiawana took a 30-14 halftime lead.

"We hung with them in the first quarter ... played them pretty even," Hohman said. "But the second quarter was horrible. It seemed like we ran out of energy. We tried a number of things to get back on track, but nothing seed to click."

Moses Lake's offense got in gear in the second half of play as the Chiefs scored 34 points. However,  the team was outdone by Chiawana over the final 16 minutes of play as the Riverhawks scored 54 points to win in a cakewalk.

Cliff Phillips led the way for the Chiefs with 16 points. Bryce Perez added 10 points and Denis Ulyanchuk finished seven points and six boards in the losing effort.

"We'll need to really crank things up in practice and try and right the ship," Hohman said. "We can afford to have another game like this if we expect to maintain our standings as the season winds down and we move into district play in a couple of weeks.

Six teams will be invited to  the post-season tournament. The Chiefs at 3-5 in the Big Nine are currenly the sixth seeded team. And if Moses Lake expects to make it in, they'll have to put together at least two more wins and have either Wenatchee (3-4), Walla Walla (3-4) or Chiawana (3-4) drop  a couple to secure a spot.

The Chiefs get a chance to rack up a W in the win column and get back in the thick of things when the travel to Eisenhower Friday to take on the Cadets.

"It's a must win for us," Hohman said. "We also need to beat Wenatchee and then split our other two games to get a decent seeding."