MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Christian Academy boys basketball team found the going rough to start the season as the team dropped two close games over the weekend.

On Friday, the Lions hosted St. John Endicott (SJE), and despite stellar efforts by Joe Timofeyev who drained 18 points, Lowell Kirkwood (11) and 10 rebounds by Thomas Knoop, dropped a highly contested game, 51-48.

"I thought we played pretty well for being our first game of the year," coach Duke Wood said. "Having kids out all week from practice with sickness made it kind of a tough week to prepare for them."

SJE led 12-11 after the first quarter of play and 28-24 at the half. But the Lions came roaring back in the third quarter to go up 38-34. However, the lead was short-lived as the Eagles came back to win the game 51-48.

"We played well enough to just keep the game close and never really kicked it up to the next level or found that next push to the finish," Wood said. "It was a great first game for us and we are only going to get better the more we play."

One thing the Lions need to improve is their free throw shooting as the team went 1-for-12 from the charity stripe.

Royal 46, MLCA 43

ROYAL CITY - The Lions found themselves in another heated battle Saturday as they hit the road to face the Knights in Royal City. Missed free throws was the teams nemesis for the second night in-a-row as MLCA made 18 of 34 attempts, and lost the game by three points, 46-43.

"Again, we played just well enough to hang around with the 1A school but couldn't put together a full game," Wood said. "Royal has some height this year and we are not that big, so we really had to rebound and play defense to compete."

Along with the missed free throws, the Lions also had some untimely turnovers at crucial points in the game that cost the team a win.

 "I think we may have been a little tired from a hard fought game Friday, but that will come around with conditioning and game situation," Wood said. "Again, I think this tough preseason schedule is going to help us out in the long run when league comes around. We need to learn from our mistakes and move forward."

Kirkwood came up big for the Lions with 21 points. Timofeyev added nine and Knoop finished with nine boards.

"It's tough when the kids work so hard for two games and just come up short," Wood said. "But this is what makes a team better."

The Lions get a chance to post their first victory of the year when they host Odessa-Harrington Saturday at 7:30 p.m.