Lady Lions return from successful basketball camp

COLFAX - Moses Lake Christian Academy (MLCA) girls basketball picked up where it left off last season, playing hard nose competitive winning round ball, as the Lions went 6-4 in summer camp last week.

"We had a really strong camp, beating a number of teams that have a lot of tradition and experience," coach Bryce McPartland said. "But we still have plenty of work to do to be ready for the season this year."

The Lions won two of their first three games, turning back defending 2A state champ Colfax 27-23, and rolling over Selkirk 34-9. MLCA dropped its third game to LaSalle 41-14. All three games were played without the Lions leading scorer McKenna Walker.

"Colfax graduated most of its studs, and we were able to take advantage of 26-2 halftime lead against Selkirk and get some great minutes for some of our younger kids," McPartland said. "LaSalle, which figures to be the favorite in 1A this year, really stuck it to us."

MLCA got back on the winning track in a big way, taking four out the next five games. The Lions got by Raymond 45-36, lost to Granger 44-27, then beat Bonners Ferry from Idaho 42-30, blew past Winlock 30-12, and got a five point 31-26 win over Chewelah.

"We got a good win over a solid 2B squad in Raymond," McPartland said. "Granger is a talented team and was the only team to beat LaSalle in league. Bonners Ferry enrollment is almost exactly 10 times that of the Academy. This was a physical match up that saw us jump out to a 15 point lead early and survive a Badger run to close it to six with four minutes to go. The (Winlock) Cardinals sat in a zone that took a half to figure out. We were up 12-11 at the break, then out scored them 18-1 in the second half. And, the game against Chewelah was hard fought as we faced an improving, athletic group of kids."

MLCA led 20-9 at the half, then held on to win against the Cougars relentless pressure.

The Lions dropped their last two game of the camp by a combined total of 18 points, losing to the Icemen, a combination of high school and small college players, 34-23, and to Columbia-Burbank 37-30.

"The game against the Icemen proved to be too strong for us in the third game of the third day of camp," McPartland said. "And the game against Burbank on the fourth day of camp saw us lose a game of runs. We opened 4-0, only to find ourselves down 14-4. But we fought back to lead 19-17 at the break. In the second half, we ran out of gas a bit, as Burbank scored the final five points of the game for the victory."

Despite losing the last two games at camp, McPartland said the team had a good outing.

"All seven of our returnees had very strong performances and contributions in multiple games," he said. "We have a lot to look forward to this year."