Staff photo by E.J. Harris BMCC's La'Quan Hawkins shoots the ball over Walla Walla's Payton Radliff in the Timberwolves' 88-75 loss to Walla Walla on Wednesday in Pendleton.

PENDLETON — Nearing the halfway point of league play and still looking for its first win in the NWAC East, the Blue Mountain men’s basketball team needs to catch fire to avoid an early end to its season.

The Timberwolves appeared to have finally created a spark on Wednesday against Walla Walla at Mosby Court, but flamed out down the stretch in a 88-75 loss at Mosby Court.

Blue Mountain (9-12, 0-6 East) held the lead for most of the first half thanks to a 13-3 run that Luke Meyers capped with a layup to make it 37-28 with 3:10 left before halftime, but every time the T-Wolves looked like they were ready to go for the kill, Walla Walla (8-13, 2-4) would shoot its way back into the fray.

The Warriors went 30 of 52 (57.7 percent) from the field to offset the T-Wolves’ streaky scoring, and a 14-6 run by Walla Walla to close out the first half cut BMCC’s lead to 43-42.

The Warriors kept it going after the break and came out of the locker room on a 14-7 run that gave them the lead for good.

Blue Mountain didn’t fold up shop after falling behind, though, and cut the lead to a single possession after Jared Mathews scored down low off a pass from Tyler Thurman that made it 67-64 with 8:13 to play.

That was as close as the T-Wolves would come.

An inside bucket from Walla Walla leading scorer Roman McNight gave him the last of his 27 points with 7:57 to play and after missed shots by both teams, Darrian Caffaro-Briggs converted a three-point play to give his team a 72-64 lead with 6:56 showing.

Following a Walla Walla turnover, Thurman made his only basket of the game to pull the T-Wolves within 72-66, but the lead was quickly back out to double digits following back-to-back three-pointers by Caffaro-Briggs and Dalton Thompson.

Walla Walla maintained the lead from there, never letting BMCC within 10.

D’Quan Crockett led BMCC with 24 points, but like the rest of the team, was unable to find his shooting touch late in the game. Meyers added 23 points while Mathews finished with eight points and nine rebounds. BMCC shot 28 of 64 (43.8 percent) from the field but just 4 of 20 from three-point range, where most of their shots were taken late in the second half.

The T-Wolves, which entered league play with the third-most wins in the East, are running out of chances to turn their season around and trail fourth-place Columbia Basin by three games. They finish up the first half of league play on Saturday by hosting three-win Treasure Valley at 4 p.m.

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WWCC (8-13, 2-4) 42 46 — 88

BMCC (9-12, 0-6) 43 32 — 75

WALLA WALLA — R. McKnight 27, D. Caffaro-Briggs 20, D. Thompson 17, P. Radliff 12, J. Downey 8, M. Schutt 4, M. Mueller, B. Tilleman, D. Steele, T. Sperry, M. Henderson. (30-52)

BLUE MOUNTAIN — D. Crockett 24, L. Meyers 23, J. Mathews 8, J. Schultz 5, R. Bell 4, L. Hawkins 4, Q. George 3, I. Harris 2, T. Thurman 2, G. Blankenship, A. Dean. (28-64)

3-pointers — WWCC 11-24, BMCC 4-20. Free throws — WWCC 17-24, BMCC 15-23. Fouls — WWCC 21, BMCC 23. Fouled out — R. Bell (BMCC).