Inside game propels Freeman to win over Medical Lake

See a photo gallery from the event here.

In the battle of the Northeast A League's top boys' basketball teams last Friday night, Freeman found a weakness in their rivals from Medical Lake and took advantage of it to score a convincing 58-44 victory at home.

"It wasn't their shooting that killed us, it was their inside play," Cardinals' head coach Noel Hachtel said. "We hadn't faced a team that had that inside presence."

Freeman, the state's top-rated team in the new RPI rankings, and No. 2 in the MaxPreps poll, got 22 points from big man Ryan Maine in the battle of the undefeated NEA teams, and the Scotties improved to 5-0 in league play and 10-1 overall.

Medical Lake was still No. 5 in Monday's RPI rankings and No. 6 in the MaxPrep voting.

Earlier in the week, the Cardinals collected a 56-41 win at home over Newport (3-2, 6-5).

Medical Lake fell a game off the pace at 4-1 (8-2 overall) and had yet another showdown with Lakeside (4-1, 6-5) at home this past Tuesday to begin a busy week that includes the Golden Feather spirit game tonight at home versus Cheney (6-5) at 7:30 p.m. They travel to Colville (1-4, 3-8) Friday.

In a game of runs, Freeman used one of their own to expand a 34-25 halftime lead to 40-25 at the 5:50 mark of the third. But Medical Lake poured in 10 straight to make it a 40-35 contest with 4:05 remaining in the third.

The Scotties essentially put the game away by outscoring the Cardinals 13-0, including a dagger, fall away 3-pointer from Michael Coumont at the buzzer. Ironically, Freeman was just 6 of 32 from 3-point range.

Medical Lake got 20 points from athletic guard Trenten Garza and 10 from Drew Hostetter, the only players in double-figures for the Cardinals.

"He played great," Hachtel said of Garza. "I think it's tough to stop our guards off the dribble," he added.

Another factor was not finishing their plays, Hachtel said. And unfortunately that included leading scorer Nizole Sherman who had just seven points.

"With Nizhole they didn't do anything special, he just didn't make his shots," Hachtel said of Sherman who had a very uncharacteristic night.

Hachtel pointed to the play of Dustin Collins. "I was pretty impressed with what he did, he's high energy and never complains," he said.

Against Newport, "I think our rebounding and our size may have got them a little bit," Hachtel said. "They didn't shoot very well against our 3-2 (defense)." Sherman had 22 points to lead both teams, while Garza added 17. Medical Lake broke away from a close game at halftime by outscoring Newport 31-21 in the second half.

In the midst of a tight race for the regular season crown in the NEA, the focus shifts slightly to tonight's spirit game where Medical Lake has won the past two contests, last year in overtime, 64-58, and 36-35 at the buzzer in 2015.

"It's more excitement than anything else, they get up for that game," Hachtel said. "Cheney can be the best team in 2A and we can be the worst team in 1A and it always seems to be a great game," he added.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].

See a photo gallery from the event here.