Card girls drop two, still lead the NEA

SPOKANE VALLEY — The Cardinal girls basketball crew dropped two non-league games at the Eagle Holiday Classic at West Valley High School.

Head coach Kyle Lundberg summed up the games with two words: four quarters.

Medical Lake vs. East Valley

“We have to be able to compete in all four quarters,” Lundberg said of the Friday, Dec. 27 game. “The East Valley game we struggled to score in the second and fourth quarters. We cut the lead down to five in the third quarter but couldn’t get going after that.”

The Cardinals emerged from the first quarter with a three point lead, only to implode in the second, managing to score only two points before the half while allowing the Great Northern League Knights (1-1, 7-2) to score another 12 points to take a 24-17 lead.

Medical Lake continued to struggle in the second half — while scoring a respectable 10 points, East Valley scored 12.

Then there was the fourth, when the Cardinals were unable to sink a single basket.

Again, the Knights were able to score another 12 points to close the game with a lopsided 48-27 victory.

“We cut the lead down to five in the third quarter but couldn’t get going after that,” Lundberg said.

Emma Maxwell scored nine, Lexie Redell and Ellie Haas six, Ellie Acord four and Jaycee Oliver two.

Medical Lake vs. Timberlake

The following day, Saturday Dec. 28, the Cardinals took on the Intermountain League Timberlake Tigers (9-4 overall).

“The Timberlake game we again struggled in the second quarter to score,” Lundberg said.

It was a close Timberlake 15-12 first quarter, then the Cardinals had an offensive meltdown, scoring only three points before the half.

Although the defense held the Tigers to nine points, the third quarter wasn’t much better than the second with the Cardinals scoring only seven points.

Then the defense loosened a bit in the fourth for both teams. While the Tigers scored 17, the Cardinal offense exploded, nailing 23.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the game’s earlier deficits and the Tigers took home the 52-45 win.

“I can honestly say the hustle and energy was there in both games, but in those quarters that I mentioned, we just couldn’t get shots to fall and our opponents did,” Lundberg said. “I saw us face some adversity head-on and they handled it well.”

Oliver, Redell and Allison Duncan scored eight, Acord and Haas seven, Emily Munson six and Maxwell 1.

Lundberg saw many positives in his team despite the losses, adding that moving forward the theme would be going four quarters.

“With this tough schedule I truly believe it is making us better in the long run,” he said. “It might not show in the win-loss column, but moving forward it is going to be a positive.”

Despite the loses, the Card girls lead the Northeast A League with a 2-0 record, 2-6 overall.

But the hounds are at their heels. Freeman is second in the NEA with one win, but also only one league game under their belt, with an overall 7-2 record, while Deer Park a close third with a 1-1 league record and 6-3 overall.

Medical Lake hits the road on Jan. 3 when they head to Riverside (0-1, 3-6) before traveling to Deer Park on Friday, Jan.

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.