MOSES LAKE 56, Eastmont 44

WENATCHEE - Well, well, well, welcome to the show Miss Kyleigh Gamez.

Moses Lake Chiefs girls basketball coach Matt Strophy has emphasized a need for another player or two to consistently step up and lend a hand to senior Jordan Loera and Kayla Bernsen to help aid their hoped for Class 4A state finals push.

Enter Gamez.

The sophomore scored a season high 23 points last night and helped spark the Chiefs to a 56-44 win over a very pesky Eastmont Wildcats team at the Town Toyota Center as part of the NCW Prep Showcase.

"Kyleigh stepped up and sure helped us," Strophy said. "They ran a box-and-one on Jordan and that allowed Kyleigh to roam free and she put the ball in the basket. She actually struggled a bit and missed some chippy shots where she could have scored 40. It looks like a breakout game but in every game she's played in she's played extremely well."

The teams were tied 10-10 at the end of the first quarter but then Moses Lake (6-2) slowly began to assert itself leading 28-24 at halftime and 42-31 by the third quarter buzzer.

"They hit a few threes on us and that will be a detriment to anybody," Strophy said. "They also won some hustle plays. A lot of it was us missing 10 short, gimme-type of shots and that was part of the combination of the game being close."

Loera finished her night with 15 points and Bernsen added 12 points.

But there was no doubting the impact Gamez had.

However, those three scored 50 of the team's 56 points as the remaining roster struggled to get much on the ledger after seeing the Chiefs spread the wealth over the past two games.

"We'd love it if everyone scored 15 points a game but Eastmont did a good job of making the other girls earn their points," Strophy said. "Jordan and Kayla get those shots and Kyleigh was doing a good job creating her shots."

Now the Chiefs can take a break until Dec. 30 when they will play host to Spokane's Ferris High School.

"I'm feeling pretty good, especially with the Chiawana win," Strophy said. "I wasn't sure about Post Falls and Hermiston and we have two losses in overtime in different states, different rules. I like where we are at but we can't rest on what we've been doing. We still need to make adjustments and get better."