SPOKANE — The No. 5 seed Moses Lake Christian Academy/Covenant Christian School boys fell victim to a strong defensive showing by No. 3 DeSales on Thursday night in the Spokane Arena, losing 65-35 in the 1B boys state quarterfinals.

The Irish used a 12-0 run from the end of the first to the middle of the second quarter to jumpstart their big win, running a tenacious full-court press and trapping the Lions in the backcourt.

“(DeSales is) physically aggressive, that’s all that was,” MLCA/CCS Head Coach Emerson Ferguson said. “Just really physically aggressive, and when that happens you’ve got to be prepared for it. You’ve got to match it and be able to handle it. That was one thing that I don’t think that we did.”

Up by 11 at the half, DeSales kept its foot on the gas throughout the third quarter and ended up taking a 22-point lead into the final eight minutes of play.

“It started getting away from us big time in that third,” Ferguson said. “We tried to change things up, make adjustments, but it just didn’t happen. It’s disappointing, but we kept fighting and that’s something that I’ll always take. The boys never stopped fighting.”

DeSales left the court with a 30-point win over the Lions, who remain in contention in the fourth/sixth-place bracket.

“They’re a good team and they’ve been a good team,” Ferguson said. “What happened is what they’ve done all year. For us, we got a little out of sorts and it started to get away from us a little bit. We had to regroup and get our bearings.”

What the final score doesn’t show is how close the first eight minutes were between the Lions and Irish. MLCA/CCS took a 16-15 lead with 57 seconds remaining in the first quarter, but the Irish answered with two buckets of their own to close out the quarter. Altogether, the first quarter saw eight lead changes.

“You love to see that happening right off the bat,” Ferguson said. “Seeing your boys competing and keeping it close. It was good to see them start fast, which is something we struggled with at times during the season. We started fast and were hanging in there.”

Despite the score leaning heavily in DeSales’ favor in the third quarter, MLCA/CCS senior Michael Podolyn’s effort and attitude on the court didn’t falter. The senior, who led the Lions with 11 points on Thursday night, played all of his 27 minutes “giving everything he possibly has,” according to Ferguson.

“He’s come a long way in terms of leadership, and that was one huge sign of leadership,” Ferguson said. “I’m so proud of him for that.”

Ferguson said he told the team this season that they were going to play “on the very last day of basketball,” which is Saturday. In order to get there and reach a medaling game, they’ll have to take down No. 16 seed Orcas Island on Friday at 2 p.m.

“Let it sting tonight, that’s okay,” Ferguson said. “But we’ve got to refocus and come back (Friday) ready to play,” Ferguson said. “The ultimate goal obviously was a state championship, but the goal was to come back home with hardware. That’s still available. Our last goal is still available.”

The Lions find themselves under the same circumstances as last year. After falling in the quarterfinals to Sunnyside Christian, the Lions bounced back with a win to advance to the fourth/sixth-place game. The team they defeated was DeSales, 55-41.

“Last year we did the exact same thing,” Ferguson said. “We had to use that motivation because we lost on Thursday last year. We had to come back on Friday and we had to win a game in order to get to Saturday. It was actually DeSales that we put out. We beat them on Friday last year to put them out of the tournament. I don’t know, maybe they were holding a grudge.”

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

Box Score

MLCA/CCS 16-7-8-4 35

DeSales 19-15-19-12 65