Seniors guide Medical Lake past Lakeside

When it came to needing extra effort on a night crucial to Medical Lake's postseason aspirations for its boy's basketball team, head coach Arnold Brown turned to his seniors.

And while each of them stepped up, one in particular did so in, perhaps, a bigger way in Medical Lake's showdown for second place in the Northeast A League last Thursday on Senior Night against Lakeside, won by the Cardinals 63-52.

Jaelon Stith, saddled with an injury and forced to ride the bench the better part of the past two weeks, came out running, jumping and most importantly scoring and rebounding in the game that allowed Medical Lake (10-3 NEA, 14-5 overall) to tie Lakeside for second place heading into the final game of league play this past Tuesday.

Coupled with a 64-53 win Feb. 2 at Newport, Medical Lake extended its winning streak to six.

"He's been hurting, he's been sitting out so he's already kind of juiced up a little bit there," Brown said of Stith who scored eight of the Cardinals' first 13 points as they raced to a quick 13-4 lead.

Stith delivered a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds for another double-double. Soliday and Wagner each scored 12 points while Dontae Brown added 11.

But as quick as the Eagles fell behind, they rallied to make a game of it and took a 28-27 lead to the locker room at halftime.

Medical Lake took command again with a strong third quarter and led 51-39 just inside the first moments of the final period when Lakeside made another run, this one 9-0 and closed the gap to 53-49 on a Cameron Gay 3-pointer with 1 minute, 45 seconds to play.

But it was Stith once again who got the Cardinals rolling with his field goal with 52 seconds to play, giving the Cards a 55-49 lead. Perfect free throw shooting the rest of the way by seniors Cory Wagner and Cole Soliday iced it. "It was mainly the seniors night to get it done," Brown said.

"We tried to control the tempo and we did a good job of that," Brown said. "The first time we played up there they scored 90 on us," referencing the 90-68 thumping the Eagles hung on the Cards in Suncrest on Jan. 12.

Rebounding is always key in those kind of games, Brown said. "We don't want them to get two or three shots and looks at the basket." Lakeside was 9-for-30 in 3-point shooting and Brown added, "They took a lot of shots to get it." In the first game Lakeside made 14 3's.

The second time around is always a good measuring stick to see what, if any improvement was made, and it was obvious it had. "We held them to 52," a satisfied Brown said.

At Newport (7-6, 12-7), the Cardinals exacted a measure of revenge after the Grizzlies won 53-41 in Medical Lake Jan. 8.

Once again a big third quarter where Medical Lake enjoyed a 23-10 edge helped deliver the win. That night belonged to junior Xavier Butler who tossed in 23 points, including seven 3-pointers. Soliday was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 12.

Medical Lake traveled to Riverside (2-11, 3-15) while Lakeside (10-3, 14-5) finished at home against Colville (4-9, 6-13). If the Cards and Eagles remain tied in the final standings they were to meet in a playoff Feb. 10 at Freeman for the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].