MLCA girls take two games
MLCA Lions Basketball
MOSES LAKE - Back-to-back wins over the weekend puts the Moses Lake Christian Academy (MLCA) Lions in the driver's seat heading toward postseason play.
MLCA won convincingly on the road at Easton Friday, and then had its way with Entiat at home Saturday.
"As nice as these wins were, it was relatively meaningless in terms of seeding as we had already locked up the No. 1 seed for the district tournament," coach Bryce McPartland said. "But if we go out and lay an egg we will be sitting home. So, we have to finish strong. If we can take the district title, we will have a good shot at ending our season in the Spokane Arena."
MLCA 70
Easton 26
The Lions found little resistance from the Jaguars in the lopsided 44-point win. MLCA jumped out to a 25-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, and took a 54-9 score into the locker room at the break.
The Lions were outscored 17-16 in the second half of action as McPartland took the teams' foot off the gas substituting liberally to give the bench players some game time experience.
"As the season winds down, we felt it was important to use this game to get some younger kids some repetitions, and try a few things out," McPartland said. "I'll say this for Easton ... 'They may struggle, but at least they show up."'
Anna Yarbro led the way for the Lions with 24 points and 9 rebounds. She had 20 in the first half and sat most of the second. Mikaela Loudon scored a career high 17 points, and
Taylor Yamane fell just short of a double-double with 8 points and 10 steals. Emily Roemer came off the bench to knock down 5 points in the win.
MLCA 44
Entiat 22
Dani Sandberg scored 20 points, and grabbed 6 rebounds, and Anna Yarbro added a double-double of 12 points and 12 boards to help lead the Lions to a home win over the Entiat Tigers from the North Division of the Central Washington 1B Conference.
"It was senior night, and our lone senior this season, Madison Yamane, won her 80th game as a member of our team," McPartland said. "I was happy for her to have this experience. She's been such a phenomenal asset for our team on so many fronts."
MLCA got off to another quick start and scored 15 points, while limiting the Tigers to one bucket in the first eight minutes of play. The Lions increased their lead to 25-6 at the half. A 10-8 third quarter run by Entiat gave the team life, but MLCA slammed the door win an 11-6 run in the fourth to cruise to the win.
"Entiat is a very good team, so to jump out on them the way we were able was fantastic," McPartland said. "But we turned the ball over too much, and shot poorly from free throw line. However, I came away feeling like we played solid defense. All-in-all, I can't complain too much about our effort."
MLCA was awarded a forfeit win over CBSS last week to bring the teams' record to 13-0 in league play in the Central Washington 1B Conference and 16-2 overall.
The Lions are back in action Friday when the team travels to Wilson Creek to take on the Devils in the last regular season game of the year.
The first round of the district tournament gets underway Feb. 9 at Ephrata High School. MLCA received a first round bye virtue of its No. 1 seed and will play its first game Feb. 12.
Become a Subscriber!
You have read all of your free articles this month. Select a plan below to start your subscription today.
Already a subscriber? Login
