Mid-game lapse leads to Medical Lake girls loss to Rogers

Early in last Saturday’s nonleague girl’s basketball game at home against Rogers of the Greater Spokane League, the Medical Lake Cardinals were able to stay with their 3A opponents.

But a brief defensive lapse quickly turned the tide and helped the Pirates earn their first victory of the season 60-35.

“We allowed too many easy shots in the paint,” head coach Kyle Lundberg said. “We just lost our defensive focus.”

Medical Lake prepares to reenter Northeast A League competition this week. The Cardinals (2-1 NEA, 2-5 overall) faced Colville (2-1, 3-6) this past Tuesday and hit the road to face Newport (1-3, 2-7) Saturday.

After trailing by a point early in the second quarter, Rogers raced away on a run that put them ahead 16-6. Medical Lake would cut into that advantage on a Cassidy Hagel 3-point shot trimming the Pirates’ lead to 20-14. But Rogers would finish out the half on an 8-0 run.

Medical Lake would make a brief run at the start of the third quarter that again cut into the Rogers lead at 28-19, but the Pirates went on a pair of runs of their own that pushed the lead back to 48-27 heading into the final quarter.

The middle part of the game — the second and third quarters — decided things and Lundberg knew exactly why.

“We played our worst defensive game of the year,” he said. “We allowed too many easy shots and didn’t do a good job of helping on the dribble penetration.”  Medical Lake only shot 27 percent from the field for the game, he pointed out. “It’s very hard to win any game with that low of percentage.”

A trio of diminutive Pirate players, 5-foot, 4-inch Loretta Guertin (20 points) and 5-1 Talia Felice (15 points) and 5-3 Sarah Guertin (15 points) did the biggest share of damage for Rogers (1-8). Hagel was the only Cardinal in double figures with 11.

With the last “tune-up” game out of the way, league play, and hopefully a return to meaningful postseason ahead, Lundberg knows where things need to improve.

“We must play better team defense,” he said. “When we do, it sparks our offense. I know the girls are capable of playing better defense and I’m excited to see how we bounce back.”

Lundberg knows the importance of a strong start in their dive back into league action.

“These next two games our extremely important,” Lundberg said. But it doesn’t stop there. “No game in our league is an easy win, so we must play our very best basketball each night from here on out.” 

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].