Cheney girls still searching for first Great Northern League win

The Cheney High girls basketball team found the going rough last week as they searched for their first Great Northern League win of the season. The Lady Blackhawks losing streak extended to six games with losses to Clarkston, 57-39, East Valley, 59-31 and West Valley, 58-48.

Cheney trailed by just four points, 23-19, last Tuesday against visiting Clarkston, but was outscored 34-20 in the second half in the loss. Lady Blackhawks head coach Shannon Root said both teams are pretty similar in most categories such as turnovers and rebounds, but further apart in shooting where Clarkston shot in the mid to high 30 percent range while Cheney was in the high 20 percent from the field.

Kayla Lemelin led the Lady Blackhawks with a game and season high 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting while freshman Hailee Huff had a team-high, workman-like 10 rebounds.

Friday at East Valley, Cheney struggled against the fourth-ranked 2A Knights’ balanced scoring and constant, full-court defensive pressure. East Valley ran out to a 34-22 half-time lead and never looked back.

The Knights had three players in double figures, led by 15 points from Skylar Bastin. Senior Kendyl Cone had 14 points, five steals and five rebounds to lead Cheney. As for turnovers, Root didn’t want to reveal how many, simply saying “We had a few.”

“We should’ve handled the pressure better, we knew it was coming,” she said. “We just had an off night.”

Saturday’s game at West Valley came down to a height mismatch. The taller Eagles dominated the rebounding glass, opening up a 20-point lead at one point before Cheney managed to battle back in the 10-point loss.

West Valley out rebounded Cheney 47-29, but the Lady Blackhawks managed to win the turnover stats, forcing 15 Eagles errors to just six of their own, a number of them coming in the team’s late game rally.

“That hurt us (rebounding), but we forced twice as many turnovers from them,” Root said.

Another indication of the size issue came in shooting percentages. Cheney shot just 16 percent from 2-point range, but was an impressive 67 percent, 6 for 9, from beyond the 3-point arc. Cone led Cheney in scoring with 10 points while Brette Draper added nine.

Cheney drops to 0-11 in GNL play, 5-15 overall. With five teams making the upcoming district tournament, fifth-place Cheney is waiting to see what happens in Pullman and West Valley’s final two games to learn where they will open the playoffs.

The Eagles travel to face East Valley and Pullman, with the Greyhounds also facing Cheney Tuesday night (Feb. 3) in the Lady Blackhawks regular season finale.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.