Medical Lake’s shot at an opening-night girls’ basketball victory vanished at the foul line.
With Sydney Abbott canning four free throws in the final minutes and her sister, Madison, adding a game-high 19 points and 14 rebounds, the Davenport Gorillas earned a 55-51 nonleague victory over the visiting Cardinals, Nov. 29.
Davenport (3-0) of the Northeast 2B league trailed 39-37 entering the final quarter where Sydney Abbott was the difference in an 18-12 deciding edge over the final eight minutes.
“Both Abbott girls played very well and I tip my hat to them,” Cardinals’ head coach Kyle Lundberg said.
Lexie Redell scored 10 points to lead her team, but got across-the-board support from Michaela Peterson and Jaycee Oliver with nine points and Makayla Geiger adding eight.
The emergence of a balanced scoring attack, albeit smaller numbers, was a good sign, but not a surprise to Lundberg. “That is one of our strengths this year, everyone can score, so it’s difficult to focus on one or two players.”
Lundberg said he was, “Very impressed with our first game, there is still lot of work ahead, but I like what I saw.” A lot of players got time on the court, including freshmen who had never before been in a varsity game.
The coach knows what needs to be fixed with the start of the Northeast A season this week.
“Our offense needs some improvement, we need to be able to run more and be more aggressive on the offensive side,” Lundberg said. “Defense is something we are focusing on a lot and must get better; we can’t take breaks.”
Bottom line: “We need to take care of the ball and create more turnovers.”
Opportunity for that improvement presented itself with the Cardinals hosting Idaho 4A school Lakeland of Rathdrum (Dec. 6) and opening NEA play hosting Riverside Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. A busy week concludes with a Dec. 10 visit from 2B Liberty at 5:45 p.m., a game rescheduled from the previous week due to the school’s appearance in the state football playoffs.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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