By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Cardinal girls collect second straight NEA title

 

Last updated 2/8/2018 at 1:42pm

Paul Delaney

Medical Lake's Makayla Geiger races towards the basket on Senior Night where she scored 16 points.

One goal's been reached with a second and much bigger awaiting for the Medical Lake girls basketball team.

With their two wins last week, starting on Jan. 30 with 50-37 over Lakeside - a victory that clinched outright the Cardinals second consecutive Northeast A League title -Medical Lake was on its way to an undefeated regular season.

A 55-23 win on Senior Night over Colville sealed their 19-0 overall record and a 14-0 NEA record for the WIAA's No. 5 ranked RPI squad.

"Yes, I'm very proud of the girls to reach our first goal of the season," head coach Kyle Lundberg wrote in an email. "It is a huge accomplishment that is not easy."

Ahead of Lakeside by a game going into their title-deciding matchup, Medical Lake led just 29-25 at halftime before clamping down on the Eagles with defense in the second half. The big edge came in the fourth quarter where Medical Lake outscored the visitors 14-8 and 21-12 in the final two quarters.


"Lakeside is a tough match up for us due to their really tall and talented 6-2 post, Hallie Jensen," Lundberg said. "We needed to shut her down along with their great guard Sienna Swannick."

That was the job of Jayda Noble who may have only put up six points, but helped limit Jensen to just nine points. "She did a great job fronting her and not letting her get the ball down low," Lundberg said of Noble.

As for Swannick, who scored only six points, Mayayla Geiger and Jaycee Oliver were tasked with defending the All-NEA selection. "Both did a great job playing defense on her," Lundberg said.

Medical Lake's offense was led by Oliver and Jessie Lohman's 12 point apiece with Jaxyn Farmen adding 10.


Things got easier for Medical Lake on Senior Night where Makayla Geiger was the lone varsity performer honored. And she went out on a high-note by putting up 16 points to match the output of Noble. "We were happy that she had such a great game for her last home game," Lundberg said.

Geiger has been a four-year varsity player, all under Lundberg, who admits, "I have been very hard on her during that time, pushing her because I saw unlimited potential in her."

But the coach also holds her in high esteem. "Each year she has gotten better because she is such a hard worker and put a lot of time in during the summer. She is the most coachable player I have had to date," Lundberg added.

Medical Lake broke open a relatively tight game, leading 13-8 after one period, with a 20-3 in the second quarter to lead 33-11 at the half. "We were able to get good ball pressure and create turnovers," Lundberg said.

The next step for Medical Lake comes Friday, Feb. 9 at West Valley High School where they face the winner of a game between Newport (6-8, 10-10) and Chewelah (6-8, 11-8) who played Feb. 7.

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

 

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