Moses Lake boys, girls fall to Grizzlies

MOSES LAKE – A comeback bid for the Moses Lake girls basketball fell short in the closing seconds, while the boys team fell victim to second-half turnovers in losses to Sunnyside on Friday night.

The Moses Lake girls lost 43-41, with the boys later falling 67-51

Moses Lake Girls

The Mavericks started Friday night’s game on a 10-3 run, later ending the first quarter by doubling up the Grizzlies 14-7. Juniors Kylee Voss and Lexi Cox both scored four points through the first eight minutes to get Moses Lake started.

“(Baylee) Maldonado, (Sunnyside’s) leading scorer, didn’t get the start because she’s resting a bum ankle, so I think that got the girls excited and they took it right at them,” Moses Lake Head Coach Matt Strophy said.

Sunnyside hit back-to-back three-pointers midway through the second quarter to cut the Moses Lake lead to 16-13, later taking a 22-20 lead at half on a buzzer-beating three pointer.

“The first thing is just taking care of the ball,” Strophy said. “(We had) too many turnovers in that second quarter, and then the bucket closed on us – we just couldn’t knock down a shot when we didn’t turn it over. That was really the difference.”

The Grizzlies took advantage of second chance opportunities throughout the third quarter, leading by as many as 11 points. Sunnyside’s 11-2 run was halted with a banked three by Cox, which helped the Mavericks shorten Sunnyside’s lead to 35-29 entering the fourth quarter.

Senior Sydney Macdonald connected on a three-pointer to begin the fourth quarter, which got the Mavericks moving offensively. A Macdonald layup made the score 38-37 in favor of the Grizzlies, and Moses Lake took the lead on a layup by Voss.

“I just love (Macdonald’s) fiery intensity, and that’s good because I think the girls feed off of that too,” Strophy said.

Up 41-38 with under two minutes remaining the Mavs shot with 20 seconds left on the clock twice, which Sunnyside rebounded and took down the floor to tie the game up at 41 with just over a minute left on the clock.

“Normally, in the course of the game, those are good shots for us and I would take them, but we were up three, then up one, and we had early shots,” Strophy said. “Then they get the rebound and go down, not in transition, but they’re able to score – that momentum, it takes the wind out of the sails a little bit.”

An empty possession by the Mavericks gave the Grizzlies the ball with 31 seconds remaining in the game, which Maldondo used to hit a layup just before the horn.

The buzzer rang out through the gym with the score reading 43-41, giving Sunnyside the win.

“I think we’ve shown that we can be there, and I don’t think that any team wants to see us in the district tournament,” Strophy said. “I don’t care if it’s at home for them, they don’t want to see us because we’ve shown and proven that we can handle anybody.”

Following Saturday’s road contest against Eisenhower, the Mavs have two games remaining in the regular season. Strophy said in order to finish the season on a high note, the team needs to follow their “trust the process” mantra.

“Trust the process, stay the course and be more consistent,” Strophy said. “We can’t be inconsistent when we’re right there. We get consistent, and we’ll beat a team.”

Moses Lake boys

The Maverick boys took the floor coming off a 67-51 win over Wenatchee on Jan. 21, which Head Coach Jake Hunt said gave the team some momentum coming into Friday’s game.

“We had built a little bit of momentum taking care of Wenatchee, at Wenatchee – Moses Lake hasn’t won there in a while, so that was definitely a positive, especially with how banged up we’ve been,” Hunt said. “We thought ‘Hey, let’s build off that momentum.’”

Using strong drives to the basket by the Moses Lake starting five, the Mavericks built a 20-16 lead through the first quarter by playing well in transition and taking advantage of Sunnyside turnovers.

“The hot start was our transition,” Hunt said. “We looked good in transition and pushing that ball. They had a tough time matching up with us, and once they decided to take away our transition we were sloppy in the halfcourt.”

With just four second remaining in the second quarter and both teams tied at 31, Moses Lake senior Blaine Macdonald ripped the ball out of a Sunnyside player’s hands and floated a shot from beyond the three-point line, which rang true and gave Moses Lake a 34-31 lead at the half.

“(Macdonald was) super important, had a lot of energy,” Hunt said. “We’re asking him to do so much, especially when he’s matching up against Brent Maldonado. It was a really tough matchup for Blaine.”

The Grizzlies started the third quarter on a quick 5-0 run to snatch back the lead, which they didn’t surrender the rest of the evening. A late third-quarter rally made the game 46-42 after a three by Moses Lake freshman Grady Walker, but the Grizzlies pulled away in the fourth to win 67-51.

Sunnyside adapted in the second half, taking away passes and forcing the Mavs into playing isolation basketball during the final 16 minutes.

“We’ve got no rhythm in the second half, they disrupted us so much,” Hunt said.

Both the Maverick boys and girls return to their home floor for senior night on Feb. 3 against West Valley (Yakima). The girls tip-off at 5:45, followed by the boys at 7:30 p.m.

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

Box Scores

Moses Lake girls

Moses Lake 14-6-9-12 41

Sunnyside 7-15-13-8 43

Moses Lake boys

Moses Lake 20-14-10-7 51

Sunnyside 16-15-21-15 67