Runnin ‘Vikes narrowly face Spokane (92-88)

MOSES LAKE – Big Bend Community College men’s basketball team narrowly came out on a late comeback attempt against Spokane Community College on Saturday afternoon, falling between 92-88.

Both sides exchanged leads back and forth in the first half, with the Runnin ‘Vikes having a narrow lead of 51:46 during the break. Jahvonta Jones led the team with 20 points in the first, while Landon Harrington took 8 of his 12 points during that time.

The guests resisted in the second half and took the lead in the middle of the half. Spokane was leading by up to 11 points and had a double-digit lead in less than two minutes.

The Runnin ‘Vikes rallied in the final two minutes, raking up some much-needed defensive stops and buckets to pull within two minutes. Big Bend was unable to get the tie basket to play in less than a minute as Spokane held onto with some late free throws.

Big Bend’s Keenan Miller picked up 15 of his 21 points in the second half. Jones finished at 31 before retiring late in the second half. DJ Frye finished the race with seven points, Isaac Perez and Zack Welch added six each.

Jones, a sophomore student, said he really focused on going all out on the court.

“I know I put the work in. When it comes time to play, I feel very confident in my hard work,” said Jones. “I really love basketball. It’s important to me and I work on it every day. “

As a freshman, Jones said he often tried to do too much on his own. This season he tried to involve his teammates.

Big Bend head coach Mingo Scott said his players were unable to play their game properly defensively, so Spokane could take advantage of his size. Scott said Spokane was able to feed the post continuously without the Big Bend guards applying enough pressure on the edge.

“Our boys resisted and came back into the game. We just didn’t play that well today, ”said Scott. “But we’ve played well for the last week and a half, it was just a kind of down game.”

He added that he was confident the team would be fine and would like to get back on their feet with a win over Blue Mountain on Tuesday.

Casey McCarthy can be reached by email at [email protected].