Medical Lake girls’ coach knows what needs fixing

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

Medical Lake head girl’s basketball coach Carey Schwarzer seems to have the diagnosis dialed in.

Now it’s finding the cure for what ails her Cardinals following a disappointing 33-30 Northeast A League loss last Tuesday to the Chewelah Cougars.

“We just didn’t come ready to play at the start and we tried to pull it out in the end,” Schwarzer said. The loss was ML’s third straight and dropped them to 1-5 in league play and 5-8 overall while Chewelah stayed a step ahead in NEA play at 2-4 and 5-8.

Medical Lake trailed 18-11 at the half but closed that to a 23-21 score going into the final quarter. And they nearly pulled it out.

“We drew up a play to get a 3 with a few seconds left, we ran it perfectly, got the shot off and it didn’t go in,” Schwarzer said. “We even got the rebound and then time ran out.”

The Cards were just 8 for 27 from the field, Schwarzer said and she knows 29 percent doesn’t win many basketball games.

“Sometimes we’re a little too in love with 3-pointers,” Schwarzer said. That’s especially troublesome when shots don’t fall as was the case Tuesday, as ML went 3 of 18 for 16.6 percent.

“We really need to finish our shots,” Schwarzer said. “We’re getting the looks but not knocking them down.”

A number Schwarzer did like were those found at the free throw line. The Cards were 5 of 8 for .625 percent. But there were not enough of them she said.

“That’s not bad but we need to get to the line and shoot 20 free throws a game as a team and we shot eight,” Schwarzer said. “We need to attack the basket, finish our shots and get to the free throw line.”

Kelby Wegner had a strong game with nine points, eight rebounds and four steals.

The Cards playat home Friday, Jan. 18 against Kettle Falls (0-6, 4-9) at 5:45 p.m. and at Freeman (6-0, 13-0) Saturday, also at 5:45.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

As the second half of league play begins, Schwarzer is faced with the question just about every basketball coach in the land faces. “You probably hear this from a lot of coaches but we need to put four quarters together.”