MLCA/CCS boys earn sixth at state

SPOKANE - The Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School boys basketball team earned a sixth-place trophy at the state competition in Spokane over the weekend.

“I made sure to tell them, we're not just going to state, we're going to state to do something. We're going to state to open some eyes and we're going to state to bring home some hardware. I told them to reach high, which was the state championship, and we felt we had just as good a shot as anybody,” said MLCA/CCS head coach Emerson Ferguson. “And you know, we missed that target. But we got the target that we wanted, we weren't going to settle for anything less than bringing home hardware and so that was the ultimate goal to start off with.”

The Lions were automatically seeded to day two of the state tournament, March 3 after beating Northwest Yeshiva in their regional matchup 61-60.

Their first game of the tournament, they took on Sunnyside Christian where they lost 36-39.

Sunnyside Christian got the possession from the tip-off but the Lions quickly got the ball and managed to score the first points of the game with a wing shot from junior Jeff Boorman. Throughout the rest of the quarter, the two teams battled for the lead. MLCA/CCS pushes but falls behind in the first quarter 3-6.

The Lions continued to be behind in both the second and third quarters, 10-15 and 21-29, despite their perseverance.

In a final push, MLCA/CCS nearly caught up during the fourth quarter. As it has a few times for the Lions this season, it all came down to the final minute. With 49 seconds left on the clock, MLCA/CCS were down by only 4 points. As time ticked away, the Lions worked to score and managed to be one point behind with 15 seconds left on the clock. Due to MLCA/CCS missed shots and fouls, Sunnyside Christian was able to gain two more points. The score was 36-39 with 11 seconds left on the clock.

In the final seconds, MLCA/CCS Jeff Boorman attempted a three-pointer to tie the game but missed. The Lions fell, 36-39.

Ferguson said he thinks that loss was mainly due to too many missed shots. He added that he was proud the team was able to turn it around in the second half and get close to taking the game. The first half they only had a 13% shooting percentage while the second half it jumped to 39.3%.

The team played their second state tournament game on Friday, March 4. They went up against the DeSales Irish and won 55-41. The victory over DeSales ensured a spot to a game on Saturday, March 5 for the MLCA/CCS team to play for 4th or 6th place against Lummi Nation.

In the game against Lummi Nation, the Lions took a while to find their groove, allowing Lummi Nation a lead of 12-7 at the end of the first quarter.

By halfway through quarter two, MLCA/CCS was down 10-18, but they seemed to find their mojo and fight back. With 1:40 left on the clock, the Lions had finally caught up and were trailing only 19-20.

MLCA/CCS senior Pierre Boorman made two free throws with 1:23 left on the clock to take the lead 21-20, but Lummi Nation made a three-pointer in the final seconds to tie at 23-all at the half.

Despite the close score, Lummi Nation again was able to take the lead early in the third quarter. Throughout the rest of the game, the MLCA/CCS boys battled to keep up but Lummi Nation seemed to be able to keep their lead just out of the Lions’ paws. Despite not gaining the lead, the Lions were able to keep Lummi Nation from getting further ahead than 10 points.

Ultimately, the Lions lost 53-45, taking 6th place.

“It feels amazing because I know Pierre (Boorman) and I've been playing since our eighth-grade year. Kenzy (Boorman) came over his freshman year, and we all just have built a bond and just finally getting that trophy just means a lot. We've been through the ups and downs. We've had three different coaches our whole high school career, so finally coming to stay and winning something feels amazing.” said Lions senior Jacob Robertson.

The five seniors said after the game how they have become a family and been able to support each other throughout the last few years and especially through the journey they have taken this season in making it to state. They also wanted to make sure to thank their coaches.

“This is gonna be a scary team coming up next. With us five seniors leaving, we still leave a great team behind,” said Robertson.

Emerson said the lesson he hopes his team takes away from the season was that they can accomplish goals in life when they work hard for them.

“It was an amazing, amazing way to really have my first full season. I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect this, because I did expect us to do damage. And when I say damage, I mean I expected us to get (to the state tournament),” Ferguson said.

He explained that he wasn’t going to let his team stop fighting because that's how he is as a coach and how he was when he was a player himself. He said he was very proud that they didn’t stop fighting and accomplished what they set out to do.

Their overall record was 23-4 this season and they held the league and district titles on top of the sixth place finish at state.

“What we want to do is establish a tradition where this is expected. I want to fill up the trophy case with (trophies), and I want people to understand that we're no joke. I want to be a perennial powerhouse. And that's what I want to do. And these boys understand it. And we're already talking about next year, because we're ready,” said Ferguson.

Lions roars:

• Senior Pierre Boorman had two game highs for the team of 22 points each against DeSales and Lummi Nation.
• Senior Jacob Robertson and junior Michael Podolyn had 12 rebounds each in separate games.
• Senior Pierre Boorman had three, three-pointers in each of the three games they played at state
• Between senior Pierre Boorman, junior Michael Podolyn and sophomore Jonah Robertson, MLCA/CCS had nine three-pointers in the game against DeSales.

Box Scores:

MLCA/CCS - 3 7 11 15 - 36

Sunnyside Christian - 6 9 14 10 - 39

MLCA/CCS - 14 17 7 17 - 55

DeSales - 9 20 7 5 - 41

MLCA/CCS - 7 16 11 11 - 45

Lummi Nation - 12 11 20 10 - 53