Medical Lake boys hold off Freeman in NEA opener

The idea behind scheduling preseason games in any sport is to help improve skills when the games really count.

That strategy paid big dividends for Medical Lake last Friday night, Dec. 11 in their Northeast A League boy's basketball season opener. The Cardinals won twice at home, Dec. 8 in nonleague play versus Lind-Ritzville-Sprague 63-49, but more importantly, 46-41 against Freeman.

"What helped us the most was they had shooters, too," Medical Lake head coach Arnold Brown said of LRS. "They ended up making nine 3s against us."

After a back-and-fourth first quarter where previously undefeated Freeman (0-1 NEA, 3-1 overall) led only briefly, 9-8 with 2 minutes, 25 seconds to play, Medical Lake got back-to-back buckets from Jaelon Stith to take a 10-9 lead, one they would never relinquish but was tested numerous times until the final 75 seconds.

"We had some spurts where we got on our break a little bit and finished," Brown said.

Stith, a senior, would lead the Cards (1-0, 2-1) with a double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Cory Wagner added 11 and was the only other Medical Lake player in double figures.

"He was able to go inside and finish some things," Brown said of Stith. "He got some offensive rebounds," and a dose of confidence successfully battling a physical inside presence from the Scotties while playing 30 of the 32 minutes Friday.

Trailing 28-22 at the half, Freeman closed to 36-35 entering the fourth quarter. A Wagner free throw put the Cardinals up 42-38 with 1:35 to play but Ryan Maine's 3-pointer 20 seconds later set the stage for some late heroics from Joey Jasmer. Maine's 12 points led Freeman.

Jasmer's put-back basket with 29.7 seconds to play gave the Cards a little breathing room, and then the junior forward's two free throws with 3.6 seconds remaining sealed it. "The free throws and the bucket were nice for him, he works really hard," Brown said of Jasmer. "It was nice to see him close it out like that."

Defense played a big part in the win Brown said, and the strategy seemed to force Freeman into numerous missed shots.

"We switch up our D's a lot, some of it was keeping them off balance, putting them in situations - obviously they can shoot the ball," Brown said. "We want to put them in situations where we contest as many shots as we can."

And while Stith and Jasmer played key parts on the offensive end, it was their defensive presence that was also important.

"Jaelon is 6 foot 4 (inches) with just about a 6-11 wingspan and Joey out there, 6-5 and probably the same amount of wingspan, their (Freeman) shots were thrown off a little bit just by those guys," Brown said.

Add to that Isiah Farmen and Cole Soliday. "They kind of harass them in different ways," Brown said. "I think those things disrupted them more than they thought."

If there was a downside for Brown it was turnovers, specifically the unforced kind, which happen when decisions are made too fast. "We still had 21 turnovers which wasn't nice; we're still working on that."

Tuesday's outing versus the 2B Broncos was also a learning effort. "It helped us defend the 3-line a little better," Brown said.

Leading at the half 34-26, the Cardinals let the Broncos back into the game with a strong third period that allowed them to close within 42-41. But Medical Lake caught fire and put the game away with a 21-8 edge in the final period.

Wagner and Stith each had 12 points while Farmen added eight more, plus 11 rebounds.

The Cardinals were at Northwest Christian for a nonleague game on Dec. 16 and then take to the road for a 5:45 p.m. tipoff against Deer Park, Friday, Dec. 18 for their final game before the Christmas break.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].