Cheney rally falls short in spirit game loss to Medical Lake

For a while, Cheney High girls basketball head coach Lorin Carlon was concerned about his Lady Blackhawks team's ability to finish games strong.

Now, it's the opposite.

"All of a sudden, we can finish, but we can't start," Carlon said.

That took different shapes in a pair of losses last week. Cheney jumped to a 19-10 lead at West Valley in Great Northern League action last Tuesday, Jan. 9, but was outscored 15-4 in the second and 32-26 in the second half in their 57-49 loss.

Friday in the annual Golden Feather spirit game against visiting Medical Lake, the Lady Blackhawks were outscored 35-25 through the first three quarters, but rallied furiously in the fourth, only to come up short in the last seconds in the 47-44 loss in non-league play.

"I still say if we can put both (good starts and finishes) together, we can still be pretty good," Carlon said.

Part of Cheney's problem is offensive rebounds - they're getting them, but they're not being turned into points. The Lady Blackhawks had 14 offensive rebounds at West Valley and 17 against the Cardinals, but few points to show for their efforts.

Another area is free throws. Carlon said his team is not shooting well from beyond the 3-point arc, so they need to find another way to score, which he would like to see in the form of drives to the basket.

In doing that, the Lady Blackhawks stand a good chance of getting fouled - and the possibility of getting three points the old fashioned way by converting at the line. Carlon would like to see more foul shots attempted, and points to the Medical Lake game where Cheney shot 18 attempts, making 15 vs. the Cards 32 attempts with just 13 makes.

"We shot free throws great, they shot horrible," Carlon said. "Trouble is, we didn't get to the line as much."

Carlon added that the more free throw attempts taken means the more fouls Cheney's opponents are racking up, forcing them to either play tentative or foul out.

As for scoring, Maggie Smith led Cheney with 15 points at West Valley, with Haley Pemberton adding 14 and Holly Flynn 10. Against the Cardinals, Brette Draper was the only Cheney player in double figures with 10 points, with Flynn, Pemberton and Aijia Loffredi each adding six.

Cheney drops to 2-3 in GNL play, 6-7 overall and in third place by a half game over West Valley. The Lady Blackhawks face a tough schedule this week, hosting now second-place East Valley (5-1, 12-1) on Tuesday, traveling to last-place Pullman (0-5, 3-10) Friday and turning around to host league-leading Clarkston (5-1, 10-2) less than 24 hours later.

Carlon said his players are working hard on all aspects of their game, and are close at times to realizing their goal of a complete game. For him, there are three keys to success for the Lady Blackhawks: more free throws attempts, scoring on offensive rebounds while also controlling the defensive glass to limit opponents to one shot.

"You can win a lot of games with those three things," Carlon added.

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