MOSES LAKE — Okay, so approximately three-quarters of the starters from last year’s 1B state final were not on the floor of last night’s rematch held at the Moses Lake Christian Academy Christmas Tournament title game between the hosts and Tri Cities Prep.

So what if it’s still December and there is plenty of basketball left this season.

The host Lions used a 16-0 run in the first quarter to build a cushion Tri Cities Prep could never dent and Moses Lake Christian Academy took home the title with a 52-33 win Tuesday night.

After the game the only ‘so what’ being asked by the Lions’ and coach Duke Wood was, ‘what’s next?’

“We still need to jell in some situations and continue to cut back on our turnovers,” Wood said. “But right now we are on a roll and getting better every game and that’s what you what to do going into league play. It should build more confidence and everybody is real upbeat.”

Tri Cities Prep came out with a methodical game plan that played to their strength and popped out to a 4-0 lead.

Before long the tide turned and the Lions would take control with 16 unanswered points to end the quarter to hold a 16-4 edge.

Wood and the Lions (4-1) employed a man-to-man defense that would not allow the deliberate visitors a chance to creep back into the game.

“The big lead did force them to change their makeup and once they fell behind they went to a man-to-man defense from zone and we ran our offense pretty well against them,” Wood said. “I think that played to our strengths and we have confidence in our man-to-man offense.”

The Lions led 29-13 at halftime and 45-27 at the end of three quarters before putting the game away.

A key to the victory was the play of Tevyn Kagle who held Tri Cities Prep’s leading scorer Will Hoppes to two points a night after he scored 22 in a semifinal win against Warden.

“Basically I told Tevyn to play Hoppes straight up and don’t let him do anything,” Wood said. “He did that and he played great and in the beginning it made a difference forcing him to take tough shots that he missed and we rebounded. It did set the tone.”

Isaac Murrell led the Lions with 19 points including five three-pointers, two of which sparked the 16-0 run.

Joe Timofeyev had 11 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds, while Stefan McNamara added 10 points and nine rebounds.

“We have more weapons with four or five guys who can score 20 on any night but I don’t know who it’s going to be,” Wood said. “It’s all balanced and that’s great. I don’t think they had that. I can go nine deep and when Hoppes got into foul trouble they didn’t have as much of a bench. We needed to take advantage of it and we did.”

Bridgeport 50, Warden 49

A great start to the game, was followed by a frustrating mid-point, to be blown away by disappointment as the Warden Cougars lost the tournament’s consolation final in a 50-49 loss at the buzzer to Bridgeport.

The Cougars led 13-5 at the end of the first quarter and 25-13 at halftime.

“We played well at times in the first half,” Warden coach Wes Richins said. “We held them to only four buckets so our defense was really pretty effective.”

But Bridgeport scraped back against Warden (3-6) in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 35-34.

“They got warmed up and shot the ball well in the second half,” Richins said. “We let them hang around and had a few breakdowns especially on the last play.”

Bridgeport won the game when a Warden defensive breakdown allowed for a wide-open layup attempt that took the victory from the Cougars’ hands.

Warden shot only six-for-21 from the free throw line while Bridgeport was 16-for-22.

Ty Jesse and Nathan Brown led Warden with 13 points apiece and Eric Bates finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots.