Medical Lake bumped from playoffs

As often is the case, the final score does not tell the entire story.

But for the Medical Lake girls’ basketball team it’s all that mattered Feb. 7 as the Cardinals fell 49-38 at Colville in a first-round, loser-out, District 7 1A playoff game.

“We had so many chances,” first-year head coach Brett Ward wrote in an email. “We shot 14-30 from the free throw line, which also included missing four front end of one and ones.”

After trailing 14-8 at the end of the first quarter, the Cardinals battled back on multiple occasions. “We had it down to three (point deficit) multiple times and missed a lot of free throws each time,” Ward said.

“They couldn’t guard Charde (Luat),” Ward said referencing his junior guard who led her team with 20 points. 

Medical Lake finished the season 7-13, a bit of an uptick from their 5-11 mark and a notable improvement in Northeast A League play from 0-8 to 4-8.

“We didn’t go as far as we wanted, but the reality is most teams don’t,” Ward said. “We did some good things and improved a lot throughout the year.”

With no seniors who logged true minutes, “It was a good building year for us and we established some good habits,” Ward said.

“We will bring back more of our team than anyone in the league next year, which is exciting,” Ward said.

In particular will be Luat.

“Charde was awesome all year,” he said of the first team all-league selection. “She was even our best rebounder despite being 5 foot, 7 inches or so. She led our team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Pretty remarkable.”

In assessing the pros and cons, Ward suggested that over the off-season, “We need to continue to grow, we need to handle pressure better as that’s been an area of weakness for us.” And they need to find more consistent offense. 

That will all the place in a busy off-season that will include playing a few tournaments, lifting weights and working on a regular weekly basis, Ward noted.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.