Digging talons into the win

SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake punched their ticket to the Central Washington 1B district title game with its 62-52 win over Riverside Christian on Friday night, defeating the Crusaders while holding a double-digit lead throughout most of the contest.

“We played some tough non-conference games, and now we’re on a win streak in league — it’s kind of like two years ago, right where you want to be coming into the district championship game,” Soap Lake head coach Daniel Simon said. “Good confidence, and guys have really bought in the last couple weeks.”

After going down 6-2 early in the first quarter, the Eagles got rolling on defense to set up fast break points in transition against the Crusaders. Soap Lake closed out the first quarter on a 14-2 run, leading 16-8 through the first eight minutes.

“We were just getting our emotions checked in,” Soap Lake senior Trey Landdeck said. “Just play hard as a team.”

Another Eagle run, this time a 12-2 run, pushed the lead to 28-10 over Riverside Christian midway through the second quarter. Even with seeing a scoring drought, Soap Lake held a 15-point lead at the break. After coming back from halftime, the Crusaders began to chip away at the Eagle lead, later cutting the deficit to six points late in the third quarter.

“Basketball’s a game of runs, and what I was proud of was we put a stop to it at some point,” Simon said. “They were going on their offensive run, and we weren’t scoring, but we started to get some stops and that held them off. Those stretches, like in the second quarter, will win you the game sometimes.”

A three-pointer by Landdeck helped push the Eagle lead back to double-digits late in the third quarter, as Soap Lake carried its lead until the final buzzer.

“It was tough, we just had to buckle down and get every defensive rebound that we could,” Simon said. “Some of their shots were tough shots that are going in regardless of how you defend them; if it comes off the rim, it’s got to be ours and that gets us in transition.”

Soap Lake connected on eight three-pointers in their win Friday night, including three by junior Jairo Lopez. 

“We have a few guys on our team that don’t shoot a lot of threes every game, but they’re probably shooting 60% in practice,” Simon said. “They’re good shooters. A couple guys that are juniors that will be huge parts of the team next year as seniors. If we’ve got a lot of guys shooting open shots, I like our chances.”

Landdeck led the Eagles with 17 points in Friday’s win, followed by junior Ruvim Goloborodko’s 13 points, senior Andrey Sushik and Lopez’s 11 points and senior Pavlo Stoyan’s 10 points. 

“Trey (Landdeck) does a lot of those things that don’t even always show up on the stat sheet,” Simon said. “He won league MVP, and I think that was cool that teams noticed all those little things he’s doing — passing, defensively, great leader, keeps us organized. I tip my hat to him.”

With the win, the Eagles will travel to Wenatchee on Thursday for the district title game against No. 1 seeded MLCA/CCS. The Lions defeated No. 4 Waterville-Mansfield 58-39 on Friday night.

Tip-off between the Lions and Eagles is at 7:30 p.m.

“I’ve got a group of guys that deserve to be successful,” Simon said. “They’ve put in so much time and energy, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. Proud moment as a coach; shoutout to those guys for putting in the work, believing and buying in. It’s exciting for us.”

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

Box score

RC: 8-7-20-17 52
SL: 16-14-16-16 62

    Soap Lake junior Jairo Lopez (5) shoots a three-pointer in the first half against Riverside Christian.
  

    Soap Lake junior Ruvim Goloborodko, left, attempts a shot in the first half.