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By Lee Hughes
Staff Reporter 

Medical Lake boys basketball: win one, lose one in playoffs

 

Last updated 2/14/2019 at 6:05pm

Lee Hughes

Deer Park's Isaac Berglund (2) and his teammates kept on Medical Lake's Alex Stith throughout the game, holding the normally high-scoring Stith to only six points at Friday's second round NEA tournament play at West Valley High school.

The Medical Lake boys basketball team rode a rollercoaster into the first two rounds of NEA post-season play with a road win against the Freeman Scotties on Wednesday, Feb. 6, , followed by a trouncing by top ranked Deer Park at West Valley High School on Saturday.

At Freeman

The Card's took it to Freeman on the Scotties home court playing "great ball," according to head coach Noel Hachtel. Freeman took an early lead in the first quarter, nearing the end of the quarter with a six point lead. But the Card's were having none of it, and lead by Garren Garza, narrowed the gap to two points before the end of the quarter.

The Card's maintained their momentum going into the second quarter. Again lead by Garza, and with some help from Sam Gollehon and Jordan Peterson, they continued to rack up points. Alex Stith and Junior Nick Mason joined the melee toward the end of the half to outscore the Scotties by 19 points. Score: 39-22 Medical Lake.


Gollehon started the third with a 3-pointer, followed by a series of Alex Stith field goals and Peterson free throws. By the middle of the quarter the Cards defense had held the Scotties to only two points as the offense increased the spread to 29 points. But then Freeman's began to ramp-up their own game defensively, and came back to 11 points and hold the Cards to two points for a 57-35 Card lead going into the fourth quarter.

The final quarter was much like third in a point-for-point dual. But the Card's held their early lead for a 68-56 road win.

"Our game plan was real simple," Hachtel said. "Rebound and take away their point guard play and that's what we did."


Stith was named to the Northeast A-League second team, the only Card player to receive votes from the other league coaches, according to Hachtel.

"I believe that fueled a few of our players," Hachtel said of the .

Garza led the team in scoring with 18 points, going 6 for 9 in field goals and 4 for 5 in free throws. Stith had 15 points, 5 for 11 field goals and seven rebounds. Gollehon shot 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Deer Park at West Valley

It was another story in the second round of post-season play when the Cards faced an aggressive Deer Park gauntlet at West Valley High School on Saturday in what Hachtel called a "matchup nightmare" using a 2-3 zone.

"Inconsistency on offense really hurt us against Deer Park," Hachtel said. "We played terrific defense, but it's tough to play that well on defense without seeing shots fall and stay in a game against a top-5 team."

The Stags came out early and hard, scoring seven points before the Card's could get on the board, and outscored the away team 2 to1 in the first quarter. Medical Lake came back in the second, playing some catch-up led by Garza and Petersen, and showing a stronger defense. But the Stags were relentless and physically aggressive defensively throughout the game - especially in rebounds - and refused to yield their initial lead.

The second half was much like the first. For every basket the Cards made, Deer Park would answer and add a couple more points on top. Normally high-scoring Alex Stith was held to six points for the game.

In the end, Medical Lake (5-7, 8-14) was unable to rise above the more aggressive NEA-leading Stags (10-2, 19-2), who took home a 67-51 victory.

Garza led the team in points with 15, going 50 percent on free throws. Petersen scored 12 points and went 4 for 4 on free throws.

The Cards were scheduled to battle Wednesday for for third place against Lakeside (8-4, 14-8).

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com

 

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