Moses Lake clamps down defensively, routs Sunnyside
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake’s Ryan Karstetter pulls up for a shot against Sunnyside.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake point guard Cory Kunjara tries to dribble past a Sunnyside defender.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake forward Gio Walker (23) scores against Sunnyside.
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake limited the guard-play of Sunnyside and pulled away in the second half to win 74-49.
Defensively, Moses Lake (7-2, 12-5) allowed just 13 points in the second half and held Sunnyside (3-7, 7-10) leading-scorer Trey Sanchez to one point over the final 16 minutes after he had scored 18 points by intermission.
Sanchez’s running mate, Art Palacios, was held to three second-half points and 13 total.
“Those guys are the catalyst of that team, they really are,” head coach John Hohman said. “If you can at least sort of slow them down that’s a huge plus for us.”
After Zach Phillips picked up two early fouls, Gio Walker emerged to score seven points and had a 3-pointer beat the first-quarter buzzer. Walker, who is always active on rebounding front, finished with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“He’s probably one of the most competitive kids that we’ve had,” Hohman said. “He downplays it a lot. He’s kind of a little squirrelly, but he really is competitive. No matter what he’s doing he competes and that’s why we like him so much.”
The Chiefs led by as much as eight points in the first half, but were unable to pull away due to Sanchez’s hot shooting and costly fouls that sent the Grizzlies into the double bonus mid-way through the second quarter.
Those mistakes were alleviated at halftime and Moses Lake put the game away with an 11-0 run in the third quarter that ballooned the lead to 17 points. In the middle of the sequence, Ryan Karstetter received the ball at the left wing and with little resistance drove for a punishing dunk amidst two defenders.
“The intensity just made us go crazy,” Walker said. “When the Tribe gets hype it just makes us play way better and we just hit shots, pass the ball, swing it and just score in transition.”
Phillips began the fourth quarter with a steal that led to a breakaway lay-up, pushing the lead to 20 points. Saddled with foul trouble in the first half, Phillips finished with a team-high 22 points.
Karstetter had seven points and led the Chiefs in rebounding with 12.