Cardinals reach early season goal at break

The Medical Lake boys team closed out the 2015 portion of their basketball season with a check mark on one of its major goals for the season.

The Cardinals scored a pair of easy wins 66-34 over Chewelah Dec. 15 and 68-40 at Deer Park Dec. 18 and ran their Northeast A League record to 3-0. Between those two games, Northwest Christian picked up an easy nonleague victory 76-56 Dec. 16.

"Our focus is league games so we're happy to take care of that," Medical Lake head coach Arnold Brown said. "It was a great way to go into our break." The Cardinals head to the Christmas break with a 4-2 record.

Brown hoped the smackdown his team experienced last Wednesday in Colbert left a mark. And it certainly appeared to in time for their meeting with Deer Park.

"The Northwest Christian game really prepared us for that one," Brown said. "We had a wake up call of how to play on the road, we can't let teams get going," Brown said.

It was the Cardinals that were in high-gear from the opening tip.

"We came out defensively really well," Brown said. "I want to say it was 8-7 and we went on a nine, 10-0 run." And then the "D" really clamped down shutting out the Stags 20-0 in the second quarter.

Brown said the news of the shutout quarter filtered in but he did not realize it at the time, as Medical Lake took a 43-14 lead to the dressing room at the half.

After the break the Cardinals added more insult with another offensive push, Brown said. "I think (all together) it was a 30-0 run."

That's exactly how the week began for Medical Lake as they hosted Chewelah.

"We came out and jumped on them right away," Brown said. "It was our last home game (for 2015) and it gave the people that were there a little glimpse of how we can be."

"The biggest thing was our defense," Brown said. Medical Lake opened the game with a 14-0 lead as Cory Wagner played a big part on offense. "Cory really got going; he had 20 at halftime." Wagner was 10 of 12 from the field. Jaelon Stith was the other Cardinal in double figures with 10 points.

Cole Soliday was a point away from a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds, plus seven assists. Soliday, has been putting up - make that hauling down - plenty of rebounds. "He had 11 one game, 13 one game," Brown said of Soliday. "He just kind of finds the ball."

Trenten Garza's 3-pointer in the fourth pushed the Cardinals' lead to 31 points at 54-23. Brown said he substituted freely in the second half. "We don't try to run scores up," Brown said.

The NWC game was to have been played earlier but due to the lack of practices, fallout from the Nov. 17 windstorm, it was rescheduled for last week.

"We were in it for a while," Brown said. The teams were tied at 18 after the first quarter. But the Crusaders outscored the Cardinals 24-14 in the second and went to the locker room leading 42-32. "They got hot, they made about 10 3s in the game," Brown said. "That second quarter I want to say they made four, maybe five."

The Crusaders were also solid with their inside game, Brown said. "They were disciplined and ran their stuff well."

Stith led the Cardinals with 16 points. Soliday had 10. Asher Cox recorded a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Crusaders.

Medical Lake will welcome some time off and then jump back into the grind Jan. 2 hosting Omak in a nonleague game and then it's back to NEA play.

"It's a tough stretch coming back but January is always tough," Brown said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].