Medical Lake boys stumble after holiday break

It was certainly not the kind of teams anyone wants to face, anytime.

But when the Medical Lake boys had to open the 2018 portion of their basketball schedule against a pair of top-10 teams in the state's RPI rankings -now No. 1 Freeman and No. 7 Newport - fresh off of a lengthy holiday break, the task was even less enviable.

And it showed as the Cardinals (3-3 Northeast A, 4-5 overall) hit the new year with rust in their game following two weeks-plus off and lost 57-43 at Newport (4-1, 7-2) on Jan. 2 and 64-35 at home to Freeman Jan. 5.

"We had a tough week," Cards head coach Noel Hachtel wrote in an email.

But it was not a total loss, he said. "Although we were beaten, we played with tremendous intensity and our players put us in position to be competitive throughout the games."

That statement might seem like a stretch considering Medical Lake lost by 29 points to Freeman. But outside of a couple of stretches, this game stayed close at a variety of times. Medical Lake even led 10-7 with 3 minutes remaining in the opening quarter, but Freeman went on an 11-2 run to lead 18-12 and then took a 32-24 lead into the halftime break.

An 8-0 spurt to end the third quarter pushed the Scotties to a 44-31 lead and they finished the rout by outscoring Medical Lake 20-4 in the fourth quarter.

"Freeman is an exceptional team," Hachtel said. "There's no wonder why they finished state runner up two years in a row and will probably return again this year."

Hachtel said they successfully countered Freeman - at times -with a physical-style of play. "We threw a bunch of different looks at them during the first three quarters and I believe it worked."

JJ Johnson led the Cardinals with 10 points and Skylar Johnson added 8 more. Michael Coumont scored 19 for the Scotties to lead all scorers.

In the first game of the week against Newport, the Cardinals stumbled at the start and were outscored 11-4. The offense got untracked before halftime and Medical Lake was able to close the gap a little, at 33-20 going into the break.

"Against Newport, we struggled in the rebounding department and gave up multiple second chance points that happened in critical times during the game," Hachtel said. "We would make mini runs, but they were neutralized by their ability to grab offensive rebounds."

Skylar Johnson led the Cards in scoring with 10 points while Garren Garza added nine. Koa Pancho had a double-double for Newport scoring 18 points and hauling down 10 rebounds.

"Skylar Johnson played a huge role in both games," Hachtel said. "Being dubbed the league's 'only true big man,' he made it difficult for our guard oriented league to contain him."

The Cardinals will try to get things turned around in other tough environments, all on the road. It began at Lakeside (3-2, 5-6) Jan. 9 and was followed by the Spirit Game in Cheney (4-8) Friday (7:30 p.m.) and at Colville (1-4, 4-7) Saturday at 4:15 in the final game of the first half of league play.

"We have a grueling schedule over the next few weeks," Hachtel said. They play 10 games in 18 days that include Newport, Kellogg, a rescheduled nonleaguer, Jan. 24, Freeman and 2B Liberty on Jan. 27. "They are all very good basketball teams."

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