Cardinal girls' slow starts, finishes lead to pair of losses

Slow starts and finishes did in the Medical Lake girl's basketball team in a pair of games last week.

The Cardinals dropped a nonleague contest 48-27 to Lind-Ritzville-Sprague Dec. 8 and then lost their Northeast A League opener to Freeman, 46-30, Friday, Dec. 11.

In both games offense was slim in the first and fourth quarters, which decided each outing. The Cardinals (0-1 NEA, 1-2 overall) were outscored 11-5 in the first and 15-4 in the fourth versus LRS. Likewise, Freeman enjoyed similar advantages.

"We seem to be a little flat at the start," head coach Kyle Lundberg aid. "We have talked about that and will continue to improve."

Medical Lake was not able to fully respond from trailing 8-0 versus Freeman. They trimmed the deficit to 30-23 after three quarters with a stout defensive effort in the third quarter where the Cards outscored the Scotties 6-1.

"Our girls are still learning a new defensive system, it's coming along," Lundberg said. "We have to be more aggressive from start to finish." 

Offensively, however, there were a number of missed opportunities that might have made a difference. And a series of turnovers sent Freeman on an 8-2 run to start the fourth that put the game away. "We tried forcing our passes too much," Lundberg said.

Bradyn Wegner and Makayla Geiger each scored eight points to lead Medical Lake Friday with Makayla Tamietti adding seven. Isabelle Miller had 19 for Freeman (1-0, 2-1) to lead all scorers.

After their opening quarter drought, things did not get much better Tuesday at home against the 2B Broncos who led 26-12 at the half. "We struggled again with trying to force passes too much," Lundberg said.

Hailey Hostetter led the Cardinals with 10 points. Kaytlyn Curtis led all scorers with 15 points for the Broncos.

Medical Lake was at Northwest Christian for a nonleague game on Dec. 16 and on the road Friday, Dec. 18 at Deer Park for their final game, a 7:30 p.m. start, before the Christmas break.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].