Soap Lake basketball teams fall to MLCA/CCS

The Soap Lake High School boys and girls basketball teams fell to Moses Lake Christian Academy/Christian Covenant School (MLCA/CCS) in a league matchup Friday.

First was the girls’ game at 6 p.m. The first quarter started out slow, each team barely getting on the board. Both teams seemed to be trying to gain their bearings on the court. Lots of traveling, fouls and missed shots by both teams filled the first quarter.

Going into the second quarter, the MLCA/CCS Lady Lions had the lead 8-2. Things really picked up, especially for MLCA/CCS, which scored 16 points in the quarter. The Lady Lions found their groove, cruising past Soap Lake.

The second quarter ended with MLCA/CCS ahead 24-6.

Despite the Lady Lions’ significant lead, the Soap Lake Lady Eagles were not ready to give up yet. They battled on, but through the third and fourth quarters only managed an additional 14 points to MLCA/CCS’s 26.

The game ended with the Lady Lions’ victory, 50-20.

In this game, lack of experience seemed to be the key factor for Soap Lake’s loss. MLCA/CCS had less traveling violations and made more of its basket attempts than Soap Lake.

Soap Lake girls basketball head coach Leonard Lundgren said his team is fairly young and his biggest concern was getting it to improve.

It was the opposite for MLCA/CCS.

“We have a strong junior class that we’ve had since eighth-graders, so they’ve had a lot of time to develop and work together and know their team cohesion,” MLCA/CCS head girls basketball coach Josh Kast said.

The boys’ game started at 7:30 p.m. Just like the girls’ game, the boys’ first quarter was fairly slow, with barely any scoring. The first quarter ended with Soap Lake ahead 8-7.

Something clicked for the Lions in the second quarter. They not only cruised past Soap Lake on the scoreboard, but managed a game high of 22 points. The second quarter ended with MLCA/CCS having a 10-point lead over the Eagles.

The third quarter was a pretty even match between the Eagles and the Lions. The Eagles showed they had what it took to keep up, barely scoring less than MLCA/CCS. Nevertheless, the Lions kept their lead and the third quarter ended 49-35.

The fourth quarter was also really close, with MLCA/CCS barely juggling its 14-15-point lead. Despite Soap Lake’s best efforts, MLCA/CCS took the game 67-48.

MLCA/CCS head boys basketball coach Emerson Ferguson said he didn’t really know what to expect from Soap Lake going into the game and it (the score) was closer than he wanted it to be at first.

“Our experience of playing together as many years as we have shined through and that’s when we were able to pull away,” Ferguson said.

“Tonight was an all around effort. Everybody contributed in one way or another and that’s a coach’s dream,” Ferguson added.

“I just really think Pierre (Boorman) from MLCA/CCS had a great game tonight; he’s a great player and we had a hard time stopping him,” Soap Lake head boys basketball coach Daniel Simon said. “We’re a young team and we’ve got to get better at reading and reacting when their defense changes.”

Simon also said he looks forward to playing MLCA/CCS again.

Box Scores:

Girls

Soap Lake - 2 4 5 9 - 20

MLCA/CCS - 8 16 16 10 - 50

Boys

Soap Lake - 8 11 17 13- 48

MLCA/CCS - 7 22 20 18 - 67

Kali Kast 23

Allison Stanley 15

Makiya Kast 12

McKenna Meise 10

Pierre Boorman 26

Jacob Robertson 1

Rebecca Pettingill can be reached via email at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.