Cheney's Kendyl Cone drives to the basket past Medical Lake defenders Bradyn Wegner (left) and Glori Cheevers (right). Cone led all scores in the game with 11 points.
Despite a cold shooting night, the Cheney High School girls' basketball team found a way to take control of the annual Golden Feather Spirit Game at Medical Lake. With the basketball not falling through the net as hoped, the Lady Blackhawks just kept shooting, and found their way to a 30-22 win over the Lady Cardinals.
"I thought we would play better, but that's OK," Cheney head coach Shannon Root said of the controlled chaos of the spirit game.
The Lady Cardinals made up for the goose egg they laid in the first quarter by outscoring Cheney 12-7 in the second to trail by one at half, 13-12. But even with a phantom lid on the basket, Root said she encouraged her girls to keep shooting anyway, which they did in outscoring Medical Lake 17-10 in the second half for the win.
"We were not shooting the way we normally do," Root said. "I'm just glad to get a win out of it."
Cheney was 28 percent from 2-point range and 10 percent from 3, while ML was 20 percent and12 percent. Cheney's Kendyl Cone led all scorers with 11 points while Kayla Lemelin added seven.
Both teams were pretty even in the rebounding battle, with Cheney's 24 defensive boards two more than ML's while both teams snagged 12 rebounds off the offensive glass. What helped the Lady Blackhawks were the turnovers, with Cheney committing 13 to ML's 20. Cheney also had 12 steals, using defense to lead to offense at times.
The Lady Blackhawks shooting struggles plagued them two nights later at home against Great Northern League rival East Valley. After trailing by just five at half, Cheney was outscored 16-4 in what proved to be a decisive third quarter.
The Lady Blackhawks regained their offensive rhythm in the fourth, thanks to implementing a nearly full-court press, but the hole was too deep. The Knights eventually hung on for the 50-38 win.
East Valley outshot Cheney 43 percent to 23 percent from 2-point range, but the Lady Blackhawks were much better beyond the arc, shooting 41 percent to EV's 10. Cone led Cheney with 13 points while Brette Draper added 10.
What hurt Cheney were turnovers. The Lady Blackhawks committed 23 miscues to the Knights 10, several the result of getting trapped in the corners and forcing bad passes to get out of trouble.
Cheney's low scoring third quarter is something that has been a problem in the past. Root said they are working on solutions to this as well, something that, like turnovers, she sees as fixable.
At 0-6, the Lady Blackhawks are still searching for their first GNL win, going to 5-9 overall with the win at Medical Lake. They continue a stretch of home games with two more this week, Tuesday (Jan. 20) against second-place West Valley (3-2, 5-8) and Friday against fourth-place Pullman (2-3, 6-7).
West Valley presents match up challenges for Cheney, who Root described as a "smaller, leaner team," that will simply have to "out quick" the taller Eagles. Against Pullman, the Lady Blackhawks must find a way to contain Emily Drake, who scored 24 of her team's 43 points in a one-point Greyhounds' win Jan. 10.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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