MATTAWA - Wahluke defeated Royal, 54-14, to split its South Central A Conference East basketball game last week, losing to Burbank, 52-30.

As in most games, the Warriors faced a height disadvantage against Royal. However, they nearly won the rebounding battle, and Royal suffered cold shooting.

"We did lose the battle of the boards 35-34, but staying even gives us a much better chance of winning games," coach Jeff Ahmann said. "Along with battling on the boards and the Royal girls not able to buy a bucket, it was one of those games where one team has everything go right and the other team has everything go wrong. The shots fell for Wahluke that night."

Against Burbank, the size disadvantage was just too much. Burbank is big and athletic.

"For us to have any chance against a team like Burbank, we would need to block out players so we could limit them to one shot each time down the floor," Ahmann said. "We did a better job in the second half than we did in the first half."

Burbank led at the half 33-8, pulling down almost every offensive rebound. The second half was a little better when the Warriors discovered they really could block out.

Marleny Garcia and Lily Ramirez led the Warriors with nine points each.