Cardinals in three-way NEA tie

The Medical Lake boys' basketball team is advancing towards one goal that they hope allows them to realize the other of a return to, and run in the postseason.

Following road wins in their two Northeast A League games last week, 63-43 at Deer Park and 80-55 at Colville, the Cardinals have now won five straight games. They improved to 9-2 in league play, 13-4 overall.

With a Riverside loss, 66-50 at home Jan. 30 to Lakeside, there is now in a three-way tie for the league lead with three games to play. All are 9-2.

"Anytime you can get two road wins back to back it's always nice," Medical Lake head coach Arnold Brown said. "This time of year teams are playing pretty good at home and it's nice to get it done on somebody else's home court."

Tuesday at Deer Park (5-6 NEA, 7-10 overall) the Cardinals broke away from the Stags with a big 20-10 edge in the second quarter and led 34-20 at the half. Medical Lake shot 50 percent from the field, but struggled from 3-point range going 2 of 14 for 14 percent.

Tellas Johnson led the Cardinals with 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the field. Dom Harvey-Mitchell was the other Medical Lake player in double-figures with 10. The Cardinals also had a big 36-20 edge in rebounding.

It was defense, however, that Brown saw as a key in the contest. "We had a little better D, we're always constantly working on that." They held Deer Park to just 24 percent shooting from the field.

Medical Lake's offense was in high gear Friday against Colville (2-9, 2-14) as they bolted out of the opening tipoff and outscored the Indians 27-14 and ultimately led 41-19 at halftime. There was no let up coming out of the break, either as the Cardinals had a 23-8 advantage.

"We shot really well this week," Brown said. "I know Friday we were 9 for 11 from the 3-point line which is incredible." That's a blazing 82 percent from beyond the arc.

Jaelon Stith topped the Cardinals with 20 points, followed by 13 each from Cory Wagner and Johnson. Donte Brown's 11 points rounded out the Medical Lake players scoring in double-figures. Dallis Martin led all players in the game with 23 for Colville.

The Cardinals hosted Newport (4-7 NEA, 9-8 overall) Feb. 3 and travel to Lakeside (9-2, 14-3) Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. They close the regular season Feb. 10 hosting Riverside.

"Our goal is to always get better around February," Brown said. "We had a rocky road in the middle but worked most of that out."

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].