The Moscow Bears looked as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks. Friday night at Lake City High School, they came out hungry and defeated the Timberwolves 55-38 in Inland Empire League boys basketball action.

Moscow (12-4, 5-4 IEL), which had lost four straight, jumped out to a 24-14 halftime lead against a cold-shooting Timberwolves team that managed just 6-of-26 shooting from the field.

Lake City (8-7, 2-5), which desperately needed a win to get back in the IEL hunt, cut the lead to 11 twice in the second half, but was never able to get any closer.

Moscow coach Lance Hansen said the win was just what the doctor ordered for his team, struggling of late after an 11-0 start.

“I just felt like we needed to get our legs back underneath us and our kids needed to get a little of that confidence back,” Hansen said. “We’ve kind of been battling the injury bug just like everyone else, and our team is starting to get healthy again.”

That confidence was plain to see early on, as Moscow turned over the ball only twice in the first half.

“I thought we played with a lot more energy tonight than we did in our last four games,” Hansen said. “I was very pleased with our effort defensively, and I thought we rebounded the ball extremely well.

“When you limit them to one shot, or any team to one shot, you’re going to have a pretty good chance.”

Moscow had 34 rebounds to LC’s 21, but the disparity of intensity was the story of the game.

Timberwolves coach Kris Knowles said he and his team hit all the right notes in practice this week, but simply failed to perform come game time.

“I always try and look for positives and, right now, I’m struggling to find any,” Knowles said. “The frustrating thing to me is that the stuff we worked on all week, and broke down, we didn’t do very well. We didn’t rebound very well, and that’s always been an emphasis for us. We didn’t reverse the ball very well.

“And our energy was just really lackluster – it didn’t seem to me like we wanted to go out and throw out 32 minutes of energy.”

Knowles also credited the Bears before looking ahead.

“Coach Hansen does a great job getting his kids ready,” Knowles said. “Right now they’re in a situation where they have to win some games.

“Hopefully, we can turn this thing around (today) at Post Falls.”

Tonight’s LC at Post Falls game is at 7:30.

The Timberwolves were led by junior wing Cory Kreighbaum, who had 10 points.

Moscow, which was led by junior guard Jake LeFors’ 14 points and junior post Brad Herrenbruck’s nine rebounds, plays Friday in a non-leaguer at Bonners Ferry.