Medical Lake girls struggle with basics in losses

The Medical Lake girl’s two-game winning streak from a week ago turned into a new three-game losing streak.

The Cardinals dropped a pair of Northeast A League contests 56-36 at Lakeside Jan. 12 and at home 43-34 to Riverside Jan. 16. Last Thursday they fell to Cheney 59-41 in the annual Golden Feather Spirit Game.

However in falling to 2-5 in league play and 3-9 overall Cardinals’ head coach Kyle Lundberg is not concerned his team might have stepped backwards. “Not at all, we learn from each game. We just need to continue to work on the little things.”

Medical Lake stayed with Cheney (5-8) through the first half of their nonleague contest last Thursday, trailing 23-22 at the half but the Lady Blackhawks came out strong in the third quarter. Their 14-8 edge was view of a much worse fourth quarter, won by Cheney 22-11.

“I was really happy with the effort the girls put in the first half,” Lundberg said. “We had some defense lapses in the second half that led to some easy baskets for Cheney.”

Offensively Bradyn Wegner led the Cardinals with 17 points with Makayla Geiger adding 14. Brette Draper scored a game-high 17 for Cheney.

Lundberg stressed the need to play all four quarters and to step up the defense. ”Our defense is what gets us going,” he said. “When we create turnovers we are able to push the ball.”

The week started with the trip to Suncrest to meet league-leading Lakeside (6-1 NEA, 10-3) who got off to a fast start, leading 15-8 after the first quarter and the Cardinals were never able to close the gap.

“We battled back after a slow start,” Lundberg said as his team closed to within 27-20 at the half. “Lakeside is a good team, they hit a few big shots.” 

Wegner carried the offensive load for Medical Lake, and the game, scoring 16 points. Sienna and Shaye Swannack each had 13 for Lakeside.

The week wrapped up with the visit from Riverside (5-2, 6-5) who carried early momentum throughout the game. “We needed to step up our defensive pressure and level of aggressiveness,” Lundberg said.

Wegner topped all scorers in the game with 15 points while Julianna Trepanier scored 11.

The Cardinals began second half NEA play this past Tuesday with a visit to Freeman (4-3, 6-7), then Friday at Chewelah (6-2, 9-4) at 5:45 p.m. Saturday they will be at Rogers (5:30 p.m.) of the Greater Spokane League for a makeup nonleague contest that was postponed following the Nov. 17 windstorm.

“We know what we need to focus on,” Lundberg said. “When we play good defense and shoot the ball well good things happen.”

Lundberg said his team is motivated to make a push the second half of league play. “Our chemistry is starting to come along and we are playing very hard,” he said. “Their hard work is starting to show.” 

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