MATTAWA — Jacky Barajas finished with a double-double 19 points and 13 rebounds and the Lady Warriors dominated Kiona-Benton 45-27 in Mattawa Friday. But it wasn’t as easy as the score might indicate as the teams were tied 18-all at the half. Wahluke was able to kick it up a notch in the second half however, and came away with an 18-point edge.

“It was a struggle for us, but we clamped down on defense in the second half — they only got one basket so I was really pleased with that effort,” coach Brock Anderson said. “Without Kaylynn (out with an injury) we’re a little more perimeter-oriented and we were only 3-of-19 from the 3-point line so that hurt. But our press was able to turn force them to turn it over quite a bit and that was key for us.”

River View 46

Wahluke 33

River View jumped out front 12-6 at the end of the first quarter, but the Warriors were able to cut the lead to three to trail 17-14 at the break. Wahluke went on a 15-12 third quarter run to tie it 29-29, but the Panthers posted 17 points to the Warriors 4 down the stretch to run away with it.

“We had a tough time offensively with Jacky Hidalgo pulling up lame at the end of the Ki-Be game so we had both her and KK (Kaylynn Holiday) on the bench against Riverview,” Anderson said. “However, the girls played crazily hard and Jacky Barajas and Jessica Hernandez held the best player in the league, Aaliyah Anderson to just 6 points through three quarters. We finally wore down in the fourth quarter, started fouling a lot and they were able to pull away.”

The split drops Wahluke to 5-5 in conference play and into fourth place in the standings with four games left in the regular season. The Warriors have a two game lead over Royal and Warden, and with the top four teams making the postseason, Wahluke needs two wins to gain the final berth.

The Warriors have an opportunity to distance themselves from the Knights with a win at Royal Friday. Game time is 6 p.m.