Mavs stop Eisenhower comeback attempt, win 59-54

MOSES LAKE — After jumping out to a double-digit lead in the first half, the Moses Lake Mavericks staved off a comeback bid by the Eisenhower Cadets to win 59-54 in their home court Friday night.

“Any time you can win at home and win in league, that’s a win-win combination for us,” Moses Lake Head Coach Jake Hunt said.

Moses Lake used strong frontcourt play by seniors Carter Smith and Jayson Byers, who combined for 21 of the 31 first-half Maverick points to help build a 14-point lead after two quarters. Smith finished the contest with 17 points, Byers with 14 and freshman forward Grady Walker scored three crucial baskets late in the fourth quarter.

“That’s what I told our guys, ‘Attack inside,’” Hunt said. “Carter played phenomenal, he did some of those things that you won’t see in the stat line … I was super proud of the freshman Grady Walker coming in too; he did a good job with some buckets to help slow down the momentum.”

With a strong defensive showing, Moses Lake held Eisenhower to only five points in the second quarter. To end the half, junior Kyson Thomas lobbed a pass up to Smith to go up 31-17.

“We just came out with really good energy,” Hunt said. “Our press with Kyson up front really set the tone. That worked really well, they did not handle our press very well. We set that with our defense first, and getting easy buckets really helped us to get going.”

The Mavs controlled the ball well in the first half, but the Cadet defense turned up a notch over the final 16 minutes. Eisenhower’s press forced the Mavericks to turn the ball over, which led to a seven-point run to close the gap to end the third quarter. Entering the final eight minutes, Eisenhower hit three consecutive three-pointers to cut the Moses Lake lead to only three points. At one point in the third quarter, Moses Lake held a 38-20 lead. In the final minutes of the fourth, they were up 52-49.

“We had the six turnovers in that third quarter, and four of them were in a row,” Hunt said. “That’s kind of what happened with us against Davis: we had that stretch where we can’t keep our poise and control and you’re losing – then bang, bang, bang, they came back with their press.”

A three-quarters court pass fell in the hands of freshman guard Brady Jay, who hit a layup that put Moses Lake up by seven points and generated an emphatic reaction from the home crowd. When the final buzzer rang out, Moses Lake was victorious at 59-54.

Moses Lake was coming off a 79-35 loss to Davis on Tuesday and will have played six games in 11 days after Saturday’s road game against West Valley (Yakima).

“We knew we had to reset in practice,” Hunt said. “We were able to get in the classroom, watch some film and just reset ourselves.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

Moses Lake 20-11-13-15 59

Eisenhower 12-5-15-22 54