MOSES LAKE – The Mavericks used their defense to ride off to a 42-33 win over West Valley (Yakima) in the first round of the Columbia Basin Big 9 district playoffs on Tuesday night, outlasting a cold second quarter and holding an attempted comeback by the Rams in check.

“We talked about it in pregame in the locker room, that no matter what, we control the effort on the defensive end,” Moses Lake Head Coach Matt Strophy said. “If we can keep them from scoring, our offense will come around – and it did.”

Moses Lake held West Valley to just six points in the first half.

Senior Sydney Macdonald got things started with a three-pointer, with senior Marissa Bischoff and junior Lexi Cox also adding threes to give Moses Lake an 11-4 lead after the first eight minutes of action.

Both squads struggled to convert on shots during the second quarter, and the Mavericks were able to take a 15-6 lead into the halftime locker room.

“The biggest thing is, keeping in perspective, are we getting the shots we want to get?” Strophy said. “Because if we get shots that just don’t go in then I can’t be too upset, but we had some possessions where we had a few too many turnovers in that second quarter. We’re trying to force some things because (the shots) weren’t falling, we get a little too deep into their zone and couldn’t kick it out.”

The scoring drought continued into the third quarter and was broken on a layup by Macdonald with under two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the quarter. Then, sophomore Madison Bond got the offense rolling with three three-pointers on three-straight Moses Lake possessions.

“It’s just open looks from my teammates and finding confidence in myself,” Bond said. “I’ve had a rough few games before that, so just trusting in the process, and my coaches and teammates really helped me do that. It felt really good to hit those threes.”

Bond’s threes gave Moses Lake a 26-12 lead, which they took into the fourth quarter.

“She’s had a couple of really nice games in a row, and (her three-pointers) were really big to give us a little bit of breathing room,” Strophy said. “A little bit of a sigh of relief – not that the game’s over by any means – but, okay, now let’s dial in, get focused and finish it off. And, we did.”

The Rams were able to get some offense going late in the fourth quarter, but were unable to take a lead over the Mavs. Moses Lake’s 42-33 win locked the Mavericks into a second-round matchup against Eisenhower on Thursday.

“It feels really good, we have a lot of potential and I think we could go really far,” Bond said. “We’ve just got to keep working hard, keep improving and keep executing.”

Moses Lake and Eisenhower will tip off at 6 p.m. at Eisenhower High School on Thursday. The Mavs split the regular season series against the Cadets, losing 46-41 on Jan. 6 and winning 38-37 on Jan. 28.

“It feels great,” Strophy said. “We’re where we expected to be, in this final four. We didn’t know exactly where, but we know we’re one of those top teams and we’ve been peaking at the right time. We’re going to take our defense into Eisenhower. We did it a few weeks ago, and we’re going to do it again on Thursday.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

Moses Lake 11-4-11-16: 42

West Valley 4-2-6-21: 33