Medical Lake boys split with Liberty, Okanogan

Speed got the better of size, and nothing seemed to make up for “bus legs” for the Medical Lake boys who earned a split in their opening weekend of nonleague basketball play.

The Cardinals opened play at home Friday, Nov. 30, earning a 73-65 win over the perennial 2B powers, Liberty Lancers. Saturday was a 150-mile one-way bumpy bus ride to face Okanogan, losing to the 1A Bulldogs from the Caribou Trail league, 76-68.

“That Liberty team is just big, 6-8, 6-6, it was hard for our little guys to compete,” head coach Noel Hachtel said of his team that hopes to improve from an 11-13 finish last season and his second in the position.

Knowing those bigger players could not effectively run with his team, Hachtel said they wanted to get into a transition game. “I think we had some success there,” he said.

Sophomore Ashton Hamilton-Becker led a parade of Cardinals in double figures with 17 points and was joined by Sam Gollehon with 15. Senior Garren Garza and junior Jordan Petersen each added 12. Gollehon and Nick Mason each hauled down 10 rebounds.

The Cardinals scored at a hectic pace with double figures in every quarter against Liberty, who lost 70-67 to 1A Lakeside last Saturday. That prompted Hachtel to suggest, “We have one of the better scoring teams in recent years at Medical Lake.”

There was not much other than spending hours on the bus ride Saturday to explain the painfully slow start that eventually doomed Medical Lake at Okanogan.

“We only hit one basket in the first half,” Hachtel said of a game where free throws kept them reasonably close in the contest. “We missed about nine layups so there was a lid on the hoop for us,” he said, adding, the Cardinals were 1 for 19 in the first half from the field.

Things improved in the second half where a 31-23 fourth quarter certainly made it interesting down the stretch. “We came out in the second half with more intensity and created better looks,” Hachtel said.

“For us to shoot as poorly as we did and only lose by eight, I think our team is a lot better than I thought they would be,” Hachtel said.

That was particularly so for senior Alex Stith, a 6-foot, 2-inch post who had a monster game with 29 points and 21 rebounds, 11 on the offensive side.

“He went to a new other level,” Hachtel said shooting 9 for 14 from the free throw line and 9 of 14 from the field. “Their bigs couldn’t touch him.” Medical Lake will get two more tune-up games prior to opening Northeast A League play at Lakeside on Dec. 11. They were at Davenport Dec. 4 and St. Georges Dec. 6.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].