Moses Lake handles physicality, ends Davis win streak
MOSES LAKE — Meticulously wound ponytails turned disheveled quickly due to the ragged nature of the game.
Davis uglied things up in the first quarter, taking an 11-7 lead, before Moses Lake clamped down to pull away and win 48-26.
“We just needed to relax, take a deep breath and let the game come to us,” head coach Matt Strophy said. “It took us a while to do that, but we got it taken care of.”
The deficit was brief.
Davis’ seven-game win streak was halted; Moses Lake — in addition to beating Wenatchee 57-35 on Friday — ran its record to 13-0 and finished out the first half of the Columbia Basin Big Nine slate 6-0.
Ellie Mayo canned her second 3-pointer of the game early in the second quarter to give the Chiefs their first lead, 12-11. That lead held up the rest of the way.
Defensively, Moses Lake dialed back its pressure to make Davis execute in the half-court. And for the majority of the second quarter, the Pirates could not. Davis was held scoreless for seven-plus minutes in the second quarter, did not make a field goal and only added two points on free throws by Imani Brown.
“They did a good job against our press,” Strophy said. “We backed off of that ... just a little token pressure to try and slow them down a little bit and force them to run their offense. When we did that, we were exceptionally successful.
“We’ll just sit back in our half-court man-to-man and make them earn it and we did a great job in the second quarter until the last 40 seconds when she went to the free throw line and made their only two points.”
Conversely, Abby Rathbun and Morgan Yamane helped Moses Lake find its groove on the interior. The two post players combined for 10 points in the second quarter while Jamie Loera finished the first half with six assists.
“If I get the ball inside and I get the opportunity to score I’m going to score, obviously,” Rathbun said. “But my job is also to get it back out to the girls and get them that clean, open shot and Davis did a great job. They did a great job defending.”
Loera, who was held scoreless in the first half, ended with a game-high 13 points and seven assists. Loera did most of her damage at the free throw line until she finally hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that gave Moses Lake a 22-point lead.
“Attack the rim,” Strophy said. “Get to the free throw line, get your stroke and she did and then knock down shots and I think the more aggressive she was to the basket the better she was offensively. I think it got her rhythm going.”
Score by quarters
ML — 7 15 10 16 48
D — 11 2 7 6 26
Scoring
Jamie Loera 13, Abby Rathbun 12, Ellie Mayo 9, Morgan Yamane 6, Kiera McPartland 4, Madisyn Clark 2, Brecka Erdmann 2