YAKIMA- The Lions bit off a little more than they could chew when Moses Lake Christian Academy (MLCA) stepped up a classification for a nonleague road game against 2B Riverside Christian Saturday in Yakima.

MLCA fell behind early and never recovered as the team lost to the Crusaders 66-43.

"Playing against a larger school with some great athletes was good for us," coach Duke Wood said. "But the two-hour bus ride didn't give us a lot of time to warm up before the game. And having a young team like ours that hasn't been put in these situations much, you need time to get loose ... you cant just go through the motions and figure you'll get going in the first quarter of the game."

The Lions indeed got off to a slow start, falling behind 22-5 at the end of the first quarter. Things went from bad to worse as MLCA trailed 41-21 at the break, 52-32 at the end of the third quarter, and lost the game by 23 points.

"I thought we competed and we played pretty fair once we figured out what hit us," Wood said. "If you take away the first quarter, it was a 42-38 game. "Everyone got in some playing time, so there were some good things that came out of the loss."

Lowell Kirkwood was the lone bright spot for the team with 20 points and 8 rebounds. Alec Naccarato added 8 points, and Austin Ray finished with 6.

The nonleague loss drops the Lions to 11-5 overall. MLCA is 10-1 in Central Washington 1B South play.

The Lions are back in action tomorrow night when the team takes on the Phoenix at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Basin Secondary School.