Cardinal girls collect fifth-place trophy at state

The Medical Lake girls' magical basketball journey ended when they reached into their bag of tricks March 3 at the Sun Dome in Yakima and found it empty.

Playing in their first state tournament championship round in nearly 30 years, the Cardinals fell to a familiar foe, La Salle, 65-61 in overtime, a loss that dropped them to fifth place in the 1A event.

But it was a trophy none-the-less for Medical Lake, who in 1991 ended up fourth. "(I) wish it would have ended a little better, but to place fifth is still pretty darn good," head coach Kyle Lundberg said. Medical Lake finished the season 23-2.

Medical Lake topped La Center in their tournament opener 45-31 on March 1. That was followed March 2 by the team's first loss of the season to eventual champ Lynden Christian 64-40 in a game where the Cards never recovered from a slow start.

In their trophy tilt with La Salle, a team that beat the Cardinals 47-45 in a regional round of state play a year ago, Medical Lake got off to a strong start, leading by as many as 11 points in the first half.

Trailing by as many as five points in the fourth, a pair of Jessie Lohman free throws sent the game into overtime, tied at 59. Jayda Noble briefly gave the Cardinals the lead 61-60 in overtime with her free throw shooting.

But LaSalle (21-5) got the next five points – including Kamryn Fiscus' NBA-range fade-away 3-point basket as the shot clock expired - to clinch it, but "That didn't lose it for us," Lundberg said.

Lohman led the Cardinals with 17 points, followed by Noble's 15 and 12 from Makayla Geiger. Fiscus led all scorers with 19 points.

The previous night, back-to-back 3-point baskets by Riley Dykstra staked Lynden Christian to a quick 8-0 lead and the Lyncs were never challenged.

Lexie Redell led the Cardinals with 15 points while Noble had six points and 13 rebounds.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].