Columbia Basin roundup: Moses Lake loses to Davis, drops to No. 3 seed
CONNOR VANDERWEYST | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 9 months AGO
MOSES LAKE — The size and strength of the Davis front line out-matched Moses Lake in its regular season finale.
Dribble penetration by point guard Alexzander Delgado allowed easy looks for forwards Michael Gordon and Ivory Kimble. Moses Lake could not recover from a nine-point deficit after the first quarter and lost 67-50.
It was the third loss in a row for the Chiefs, which dropped them into third place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine and into a district play-in game with Sunnyside, 7 p.m., on Tuesday.
“We’ve been doing a lot of flushing,” head coach John Hohman said. “We’ve got to get back over on that other side. Now we’ve got Sunnyside Tuesday night here so we’ve still got to get going.”
Despite being locked into the No. 1 district seed, Davis was energized from the opening tip. The Pirates out-rebounded the Chiefs 47-47. Unheralded senior forward Michael Gordon posted a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
“I think it just came down to physicality,” Hohman said. “We made it easy for them, we really did. Not attacking, not going to the body, not blocking out,” Hohman said. “They’re length really affected us tonight, whereas down there (Yakima) it didn’t.
Moses Lake (7-5, 12-8) traded baskets with Davis for the majority of the next three quarters, unable to erase the early hole.
An all-around poor shooting night did not help.
The Chiefs shot 31 percent from the field, 20 percent from the three-point line and 59 percent from the free throw line.
Zach Phillips scored a team-high 18 points and Gio Walker had a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Score by quarters
Davis — 18 16 17 16 67
Moses Lake — 9 14 15 12
Box score
ML — Phillips 18, Walker 13, Ryan Karstetter 8, Evan McLean 6, Cory Kunjara 3, Vance Alvarado 2
Davis — Gordan 21, Delgado 14, Kimble 10, Brock Williams 7, Aaron Meza 6, Chando Chavez 6, Collin Kelley 3
Prosser 70, Ephrata 48
EPHRATA — Ephrata was outscored 36-21 in the second half and lost its district tournament opener to Prosser 70-48.
Scott Blakney, an Idaho commit, posted a career-high 34 points.
Jakob Oxos and Joshua Benthem scored 11 points each for the Tigers. Leading scorer Cameron Clark was limited to nine.
Manson 50, Soap Lake 32
MANSON — Soap Lake fell in its first-round district game to Manson 50-32.
Brayden Winters overcame early foul trouble to score 13 points.
“I thought we played them well for the most part,” head coach Agustin Pedregon said.
Men’s college basketball
Walla Walla 70, Big Bend 66
MOSES LAKE — Walla Walla closed the game on an 8-0 run and dealt Big Bend a loss 70-66.
The Runnin’ Vikes (8-3, 16-8) were outscored 38-30 in the second half.
Jacob McCord posted a line of 27 points and 19 rebounds. The Warriors had a balanced attack with four players in double figures.
Women’s college basketball
Walla Walla 79, Big Bend 50
MOSES LAKE — Big Bend could not keep pace with high-scoring Walla Walla and lost 79-50.
Callie Gronning led the Vikings (3-8. 11-13) with 13 points and five rebounds; Hailey Garrity added 10 points.
Walla Walla’s Jade Skidmore flirted with a triple-double, posting 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.