Soap Lake's late rally was not enough

SOAP LAKE — The Eagles hosted Waterville and despite the heroic efforts of Micah LaPlante, lost a tough battle 55-44.

"They played hard," said head coach Eric Neilsen. "We missed some big shots down the stretch. That hurt us."

Soap Lake trailed the whole game, by as many as 11, but came back with a scoring surge late in the game to bring the score within three.

The Eagles began the fourth quarter down 41-32 but caught some breaks early.

Waterville fouled Adrian Guzman to begin the period and put him on the line to shoot two. Guzman sunk one and tightened the lead.

Brad Hitzroth followed Guzman's trip to the line with a blocked shot before Jose Nunez drew a foul to shoot another two.

"Free throw shooting. Every coach in the world knows how important it is," Neilsen said.

LaPlante scored his first points of the quarter following his own shot down low and earning the putback to make it a 43-36 ball game with seven minutes left.

With four minutes remaining Hitzroth stepped up to the line and drained a 3-point shot to make it a 6-point game.

Waterville put Rylei Franks on line with three minutes left. Franks was able to make one shot.

LaPlante had a steal on Waterville's next inbounds and immediately scored a layup, making it 47-44. It would be as close as the game would get.

Soap Lake was shut out of the scoring in the last two minutes of the game.

The Eagles struggled early, suffering from turnovers and fouls.

Derek Dailey scored Soap Lake's first bucket after three minutes of play, drawing the foul and making the 3-point play.

"They kept us out of sync offensively in the first quarter," said Neilsen.

Waterville answered with a 3-point shot from way outside to make it 7-4.

By the end of the first period, Waterville had stretched their lead to 14-6.

Soap Lake began the second quarter with a turnover and Waterville took advantage, sinking a 3-ball.

LaPlante scored the first points of the period with a trip to line, shooting 1 of 2 and then followed it up with a layup to close the gap to nine points.

Guzman had the only other 3-point shot in the game for Soap Lake to make it 20-14.

LaPlante had two steals in the quarter and helped keep his team in the mix.

Soap Lake went into the locker room at halftime down 28-22.

LaPlante led the team with 21 points. Dailey had six points. Guzman and Chad Meiries had four points each. Soap Lake shot 12 of 21 from the line. Both teams had 15 field goals.

"They beat us on the line," Neilsen said in reference to the field goals for both teams. "I can't wait to play them again and see how it goes."

Soap Lake plays Waterville Jan. 20 in Waterville.