Medical Lake can't seem to shake Lakeside

As the Medical Lake boy's basketball team heads down the road in the state 1A playoffs there is one image they can't seem to shake in their mirror.

The Lakeside Eagles.

After a split in the first two games of the Northeast A League playoffs last week, a 59-47 loss to Lakeside and a 61-44 victory over Chewelah, the Cardinals faced the Eagles again Feb. 16 in double-elimination district play, losing 73-49.

Medical Lake (16-6) closed out the regular season Feb. 9 at Riverside with an easy 59-30 victory, but had to turn around the following night to face Lakeside (16-5) in a tiebreaker to determine the No. 2 seed in the playoffs behind regular season champ, Freeman, at a neutral site in Freeman.

Leading 45-44 at the end of the third quarter, the Cardinals imploded and the Eagles went on a 12-0 run, part of a 15-2 edge they would have in the final period.

"We had four straight turnovers at the beginning of the fourth quarter which led to easy baskets for them," head coach Arnold Brown said. "It's never OK to turn it over but to turn it over and they score, that's kind of a double dose."

Compound the miscues with the ball and old shooting and it leads to disaster. "We missed shots we normally hit and we hit the panic button a little bit and forced some stuff," Brown said.

Cole Soliday led Medical Lake with 18 points while Jaelon Stith and Cory Wagner each hit for 13. The loss shoved the Cards into a loser-out game with Chewelah (5-16) last Friday, Feb. 12 in Medical Lake.

Behind Wagner, who scored a game-high 27, Medical Lake raced to a big 23-6 first-quarter lead and never were threatened. They led 39-20 at halftime. No other Cardinals were in double-figures.

Playing three games in four days may have taken its toll versus Lakeside, but it worked in favor of Medical Lake versus the Cougars. With a game under their belt, Brown saw his team come into Friday more relaxed, and it showed. Particularly with Wagner.

"He shot well and kind of got us going," Brown said. "Everybody joined in."

In their NEA finale against Riverside, behind the game-high 18 from Stith, Medical Lake had a 30-15 halftime lead and kept the gas pedal pressed to the floor throughout.

The recipe for the Cardinals is simple from here on out. First, they need to win two games this week to advance to face an undecided opponent from the Caribou Trail League for the right to go to Yakima for the 1A tournament, March 3-5 at Yakima.

"We've got to hit some shots," Brown said when asked how they would counter an athletic Lakeside team with multiple weapons in Cameron Gay, Blayne Baerwald and Gunnar Swannack. And above all, "We have to take care of the ball." Gay scored 19 to lead his Eagles last Wednesday.

The brackets will be announced Sunday, Feb. 21.

Lakeside rolls 73-49

Lakeside's Cameron Gay scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Eagles to a 73-49 win over Medical Lake Tuesday at West Valley High School in an opening round District 7 boys basketball playoff game. Trailing 17-11 after the opening quarter, the Eagles outscored the Cardinals 21-12 to take a 32-29 halftime lead. Cole Soliday led the Cards with 14 points.

ML plays Friday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m. at West Valley versus Newport, which lost 57-51 Tuesday to Freeman. The winner moves on to regional play while the loser's season is done.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].