MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake boys basketball team opened league play with dual losses at home to the Panthers and Wildcats this weekend. The Chiefs lost a 57-55 thriller to Wenatchee Friday, and then were turned back 51-43 by Eastmont Saturday.

"We had a coupe of tough losses over the weekend as we are still trying to figure out how all of the pieces fit together on our young team," coach John Hohman said. "But the good thing is the way the league is structured this year we play everyone three times, so this isn't a nail in our coffin by any means."

Wenatchee 57

Moses Lake 55

The Chiefs scored 24 points off Panther turnovers, but Wenatchee managed to pull out a narrow 2-point win to hand Moses Lake a gut-wrenching loss at home Friday night.

The Panthers raced out to a 21-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Chiefs bounced back to out score the Panthers 12-8 in the second to close the gap to 29-23 at the half.

Moses Lake and Wenatchee battled back and forth in the second half of action as the Chiefs put 32 points on the board to the Panthers 28. But the home team came up three points shy of a win, thanks in part to a lopsided 53 to 27 advantage of free throw attempts awarded to the visiting team.

Denis Ulyanchuk led the offensive output for Moses Lake with 17 points. Josh Hirz added 11, and Nick Sutherland finished with 9.

Eastmont 51

Moses Lake 43

The Chiefs dropped their second game of the weekend to the Wildcats and fell to 0-2 in Big Nine league play.

The game was close throughout as Eastmont held a 24-17 lead at intermission. Moses Lake matched the Widlcats point for point in the second half of action, but came up 8 points short in the final tally.

As in the game against Wenatchee the night before, the Wildcats held the advantage at the charity stripe, attempting 31 free throws the Chiefs 23. Nick Sutherland was high scorer for Moses Lake with 14 points. Trino Rubio added 8 and Jordan Chavez finished with 7 points. Ulynachuk tallied just 2 points as he fouled out after 11 minutes of play.

"Our kids have played really hard the last two game and that's what we as coaches are looking for," Hohman said. "We just need to be a little more consistent scoring wise and finish well."

The Chiefs are back on the hardwood Friday when Moses Lake hits the road to take on the Davis Pirates. The team plays Sunnyside at home a 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

"Both of those teams are pretty good and well coached," Hohman said. " Dais is a tough place to play, but they are beatable. Sunnyside on the other hand, lost to Wenatchee by 20 points, so they are going to be a much tougher team, but we have a shot to beat them if we play well."