Cards hold Lakeland, Riverside to low scores in 2-1 week
Medical Lake's Jaxyn Farmen controls the opening tip off against Riverside last Friday. Cards' 48-28 win.
As the Medical Lake girls' basketball team prepares for the part of the season that really counts - the Northeast A League games - the Cardinals seem to be prepared for the grind of the next several weeks.
"I'm very happy with this week, I saw lots of good things," head coach Kyle Lundberg said of a 2-1 week. That included a 66-34 nonleague win over Rathdrum, Idaho's Lakeland High School Hawks, another dominant outing in the NEA opener, a 48-28 win at home versus Riverside. It concluded with a 54-38 nonleague loss to the 2B Liberty Lancers.
With a 2-2 record overall and 1-0 in NEA play, Medical Lake was on the road at Deer Park (1-0 NEA, 2-2 overall) Dec. 13 and Friday at 7:30 p.m. when they host Deer Park in the final home games before the holidays.
Lexie Redell's 12 points led the Cardinals versus Lakeland with Jaxyn Farmen adding 11, the only two scorers in double-figures versus the 4A school. Medical Lake exploded for 29 second-quarter points to pull way to lead 40-20 at the half.
The big offensive push was due to some big shots from Emily Munson (seven points) and Redell. That, along with some solid defense, which Lundberg said, "Created turnovers which led to quick fast breaks," in the rout of the school from Idaho's second biggest classification.
Medical Lake had that defensive effort to the end of the Lakeland game, limiting the Hawks to just two fourth quarter points. And it seemed to carry over to Friday's NEA contest with Riverside (0-1 NEA, 2-2 overall) where the opponents were held to single-digits in three more quarters.
The Cardinals had a 25-8 halftime lead over the Rams.
"We are starting to play better defense with different rotations," Lundberg said. "Playing 11 players, we are trying to get the rotations down to see what group works the best together."
Redell scored 12 points and Farmen had 10 as that pair continued to be the thrust behind the Medical Lake scoring. Makayla Geiger added nine more.
Another dynamic duo - Maisie Burnham and Aleena Cook from Liberty - proved to be the undoing of Medical Lake's week. Burnham scored 21 while Cook had 10 as the Lancers used a 15-9 second quarter edge that kept them undefeated in the young season at 2-0.
"They took us out of our defensive game plan due to their two great shooters," Lundberg said. "Offensively we didn't shoot the ball very well, by far the worst shooting game of the year," he added.
Jaycee Oliver led the Cards with 12 points.
Following this week's contests, Medical Lake has 11 days away from any games, resuming play Tuesday, Dec. 27 in a tournament at West Valley High School versus Northeast 2B Kettle Falls at 5 p.m. and the following day at 9 a.m. against Priest River.
NEA play resumes Jan. 3 at home against Newport.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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