MOSES LAKE — Playing against the game of basketball, regardless of opponent, is something the Moses Lake coaching staff preaches.

Moses Lake, on both sides of the court, was dominant from the opening tip and blew out West Valley 64-20.

The Chiefs led 20-4 after one quarter and never let up.

“Coach (Strophy) definitely talks about sticking to our level and even through practice the whole week we talk about that,” point guard Jamie Loera said. “Right before the game that’s the last thing we say to each other.”

Moses Lake was at its level and then some in the first quarter.

Ellie Mayo made two of her first three attempts from 3, opening up the offense for everyone else. Loera’s seven points led five Chiefs who scored in the first quarter.

“When somebody not named Loera or (Abby) Rathbun make a shot that opens up everything,” head coach Matt Strophy said. “So, when Ellie — even when she wasn’t making those couple of shots — the fact that she was fearless in taking them, forces the defense to play.

Morgan Yamane had a couple of mid-range jumpers that she scored on so that forces that defender to not help then you have Kiera McPartland or Madi Clark and when they knock down a bucket, they get to the rim, whatever it is. When we can score — even if it’s four or six points out of each girl — that just totally opens things up for everybody. When you couple that with our defense, that’s pretty good.”

Balanced scoring was on full display. Loera led all scorers with 19 points, but she was aided by nine other teammates with between two and nine points.

Moses Lake’s suffocating defense held West Valley without a field goal for over six minutes in the second quarter and 11 points through three quarters.

Mayo’s third 3-pointer pushed the lead over 30 points in the third quarter. Clark scored on Moses Lake’s first possession of the fourth quarter to enact a running clock.

“It’s just the mindset of the girls to where they’re dialed in when game time comes,” Strophy said. “It’s the girls that take it upon themselves to play hard all the time.”

Score by quarters

ML — 20 10 19 15 64

WV — 4 3 4 9 20

Scoring

Jamie Loera 19, Ellie Mayo 9, Abby Rathbun 7, Madisyn Clark 7, Kiera McPartland 5, Morgan Yamane 5, Brecka Erdmann 4, Camille Carpenter 3, Gabi Rios 3, Kendyl Crum 2