Lions fall to Odessa in girls 1B state tournament

SPOKANE — In a back-and-forth first game inside the Spokane Arena, the Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School Lions fell to Odessa 55-50 in the Round of 12 portion of the 1B Girls State Basketball Tournament.

“The girls, they played their hearts out,” MLCA/CCS Head Coach Josh Kast said. “They’re disappointed in the way it ended. They’re pretty heartbroken.”

The Tigers used free throws to capture the lead late in the fourth quarter after the Lions had led for the majority of the second half.

“Too many fouls put them at the line,” Kast said. “They did a good job of hitting their free throws. We weren’t in the bonus but they were, and they took advantage of that the last four minutes.”

MLCA/CCS took a nine-point lead with just under six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers changed their defensive strategy to put the pressure on the Lions.

“We decided things weren’t working, so we switched to man-to-man and put a little pressure on them,” Odessa Head Coach Travis Schuh said. “They seemed to not deal with it (well), and we chipped away offensively.”

The Tigers got in the face of the Lions on the offensive end, which led to a handful of missed layups that allowed Odessa to get back into the game.

“They switched up from zone to man (defense) – which is fine, we’re comfortable with that,” Kast said. “We had some opportunities we didn’t cash in on. We had our looks. That hurt, missing a couple of layups there.”

Thanks to being in the bonus, Odessa shot 24 free throws in the second half and made 17. With a handful of chances to chip away with under two minutes remaining, the Lions turned the ball over back to Odessa.

“We had a couple turnovers, we had at least three turnovers that were unforced,” Kast said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball better.”

Odessa jumped out to an early 12-2 lead in the first quarter, but the Lions found their footing offensively and clawed back to tie the game at 26 just before halftime.

“We started to attack a little more inside,” Kast said. “We had been settling for threes at the time, and I knew we needed to crawl back and get high-percentage shots inside the paint. (We increased) the tempo; started to push the ball a little bit more for space; and made some good things happen in transition.”

MLCA/CCS senior Makiya Kast got going from beyond the three-point arc late in the second quarter, later hitting four threes in the second half. The senior finished the game leading all scorers with 22 points.

“She’s been doing that all year for us,” Kast said. “We need a big three, or big threes, she’s the one who’s been stepping up and knocking them down all year. She’s capable of getting hot, like she did. Shot the ball with confidence, and did great.”

Schuh said the Tigers had prepared to limit MLCA/CCS’s Kali and Makiya Kast.

“We knew, specifically, we had two girls we had to watch – that’s (Kali Kast) and (Makiya Kast),” Schuh said. “We’ve worked on things the whole week to deal with (Makiya Kast), and we left her open. She kept hitting those threes, jumped up by nine points.”

The Lions finished the season with a trip to the Spokane Arena and a 20-5 record.

“It’s been a really special year for us,” Kast said. “Being able to coach my daughters and niece, and then also the other kids we've had in the program for the last two to five years – it’s been fun.”

For the five seniors on the Lion roster, many of which have played on the court with each other for years, Kast said the future is bright.

“They’ve got bigger and better things now,” he said. “Basketball was fun, but they’re going to do much more special things than play basketball. This was just a chapter in their life. A fun time for them and a good experience, but the best has yet to come for them.”

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

Box Score

MLCA/CCS 8-18-12-12: 50

Odessa 12-16-8-19: 55