Moses Lake girls basketball district champions

MOSES LAKE - For just the second time in school history, Moses Lake girls basketball is district champions.

The Chiefs (12-3, 18-4) sprinted past Eisenhower (3-12, 3-17) in the first round, 57-14, which set up a rematch of last year's district championship against Davis (10-5, 12-10).

Moses Lake ensured it would be the home team cutting down the nets this time as guards Emily Olson and Jessie Loera were able to sink 5/6 free throws during the finals 90 seconds to ice the win.

When the clock reached zero, the scoreboard read 49-40 in favor of the Chiefs.

"Definitely a little bit of satisfaction and it's nice when you can do that against a team that beat you the year before," head coach Matt Strophy said. "Avenging that loss, seeking a little bit of revenge ... The girls had that chip on their shoulder and they were frustrated by that last year. They felt like we should have won so that's who we actually wanted to play."

Since dropping a two-point nail biter to the Pirates on Dec. 20, Moses Lake has beaten Davis three times in a row by an average of 16.7 points.

Strophy and his staff researched offensive sets to combat Davis' 1-1-3 zone, however the Pirates played a majority of man defense during Saturday's district championship.

Moses Lake was prepared for the wrinkle due to the uncertainty of opponent.

"Since we didn't know if we were going to play Davis or Wenatchee we were practicing both our zone offense and our man offense preparing for everything," Strophy said.

The Chiefs won't have to travel far for the regional. The team will face Kentridge at Big Bend Community College March 1 at 4 p.m.

Wenatchee and Eisenhower High School were other possible destinations.

"Hopefully being a true, even though it's not at Moses Lake High School, a true home game in our home town we can get the fans out there and have great support that we've been lucky to have the last 10-11 years I've been in Moses Lake," Strophy said.

The Chargers are 18-8 overall and finished third in the South Puget Sound League North.

Strophy and his staff have already begun to break down Kentridge in preparation for Saturday's regional.

"They're a very emotional a team," he said. "They wear their emotions on their sleeves good and bad. So when they do something good they really like to high five and chest bump type of players and sometimes forget to pay attention to the game then they let the negative things affect them too where if they miss or shot or feel like they got fouled then they show that emotion as well. So we might be able to take advantage of something like that too."