Warriors can’t hold lead, fall 60-49 to Kiona-Benton

MATTAWA — Despite making a significant run in the third quarter, the Wahluke Warriors couldn’t hold on to their lead Tuesday night at home to Kiona-Benton, falling to the Bears 60-49 and suffering their first league loss of the 2023-24 season.

Tuesday’s loss was the first for Wahluke in over a month, with the last loss being to Ephrata on Dec. 7 (60-58).

“I think we were feeling overconfident,” Wahluke Head Coach Clayton Buck said. “We played overconfident, just weren’t ourselves tonight. Our defense — usually we’re about a seven or an eight on a scale to 10, but I thought we were a four or five (tonight). Just a lack of rebounding, lack of defensive intensity.”

Tied at 20 late in the first half, Kiona-Benton connected on back-to-back three-pointers to take a 26-20 lead into the halftime locker room. After the Bears went up 31-22 early in the third quarter, Wahluke turned up the intensity on defense and jumpstarted its offense, going on a 17-0 run with the exclamation point coming on a three-pointer by Warrior junior River Buck to go up 37-31. 

The third-quarter run was surged by a flux of turnovers forced by Wahluke, as well as getting the ball down the floor in transition.

“We came back to being ourselves; intensity, pushing the ball, jumping passing lanes, playing defense with our feet and (communicating),” Clayton Buck said. 

Kiona-Benton opened the fourth quarter with a three, later tying the game at 40. After the two squads traded the lead on three straight possessions, Kiona-Benton snatched the lead for good on another triple to go up 46-44, holding on for a 60-49 win.

“We weren’t talking,” Buck said. “More focused with staying with our guy than the switches, and not communicating. The last two or three games — Naches Valley, College Place and Toppenish — it was a different game … they got that lead, and then we just lost ourselves.”

After Wahluke’s third-quarter run, Kiona-Benton ended the third quarter on a 4-0 run in the final two minutes, outscoring Wahluke 29-10 down the stretch of the third quarter and throughout the fourth quarter.

“I feel like once we made the lead, they made a run at us and we got tight, we got a little panicky,” Wahluke assistant coach Leon Yorgesen said. “We stopped doing the things that had got us to that point and got out of our system.”

Senior Andrew Yorgesen led the Warriors with 13 points in Tuesday’s loss, followed by senior Jordan Buck and River Buck who each scored 10 points. Sophomore Keaton Zirker and senior Kacey Hirai both scored five points and freshman Manuel Ruvalcaba-Jimenez scored four points.

With the loss, Wahluke falls to 11-2 this season and 2-1 in the South Central Athletic Conference (East). Wahluke’s next outing is a rivalry matchup at home against Royal on Friday.

“Show up to practice, work hard and put it behind us,” Buck said. “We had a mentality that was almost like flawless, killer, hustle, intense, and I think with RPI rankings coming out, people talking about, ‘You guys are this, you guys are that,’ there’s a lot of people hyping these boys up where I think that built into their conscience a little bit.”

The Knights and Warriors tip off at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Mattawa.

“In some ways, maybe this could be a blessing in disguise because it can wake us up,” Yorgesen said. 

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

Box score

KiBe: 9-17-9-25 60
WAH: 11-9-20-9 49

    Wahluke junior River Buck, in white, attempts a three-pointer in the first half against Kiona-Benton.
  

    Wahluke freshman Manuel Ruvalcaba-Jimenez (3) dribbled the ball up the floor in transition against Kiona-Benton.
  

    Wahluke senior Andrew Yorgesen, in white, led the Warriors in scoring with 13 points Tuesday night.