Moses Lake girls league champion

YAKIMA - Emily Olson scored 23 points and McKenna Walker added 16 to lead the Chiefs to a 61-44 road win over the Davis Pirates Friday. The victory nailed down the top spot in the Columbia Basin Big Nine Conference with two games left in the regular season.

"This win clinched the league title for the Chiefs for only the second time in school history.  After struggling through a 3-18 season last year, this season has been quite vindicating for the girls and coaches," coach Matt Strophy said. "Last year, we were young and inexperienced, but had talent.  This year, we still have a young team, but we are experienced, talented, and unselfish.  Our team first attitude has helped us mature into a championship team.  I am so proud of the girls for the hard work they have put in over the last year (in and out of season), and it shows as we have turned things back around to our winning tradition with a league championship." 

The first half of the game was very competitive as Moses Lake took a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and was up 33-25 at the break. A 14-8 run in the third quarter pushed the score to 47-33 and gave the Chiefs some breathing room.

Davis tried to make a game of it in the final eight minutes, but Moses Lake had another thing in mind as they out scored the Pirates 14-11 to win going away. Kaitlyn Stevens added 9 points, Jessie Loera had 4, Selina Koon and Sadie Nielsen scored 3 each, Carina LeFave had 2 points, and Alysha Overland finished with 1 in the win.

"We had solid all-around performance by our girls ... consistent scoring each quarter ... but we had to overcome 24 turnovers and we did it with solid defense and rebounding," Strophy said. " If we can have 24 turnovers and still score 61 points, then imagine what we can do offensively with 10 more possessions.  Our goal is to be under 15 turnovers per game, but we have only made that goal a few times this year.  If we want to advance throughout the district tournament and get to the round of 16, then we are going to have to clean that up, and we'll have to do that quickly."

Moses Lake finishes the regular season at home Friday against Sunnyside, then takes to the road to play Eisenhower Saturday

The Chiefs open postseason play at home as the team hosts Wenatchee in round one Feb. 15. If the Chiefs win, they will host the winner of the Davis-Eastmont game Feb. 16.

"Our goal is to get back to the Tacoma Dome (for the state tournament), so after a quick celebration of our league championship, it is back to business for the girls and coaches," Strophy said. "But first we need to concentrate on winning the district tournament."

The win over Davis puts Moses Lake at 12-1 in league play and 15-3 overall.

The game against the Grizzlies is scheduled for 5:45 p.m.