The Medical Lake girls moved ahead in post-season play in a low scoring, defensive 42-31 road victory against King’s Way Knights Friday at West Valley High School.
But the beginning of the game didn’t look like eminent victory. The Card girls took the first quarter to warm up, allowing the Knights to outscore them by three points, and going only 1 for 8 in 3-point shooting.
“King’s Way shot the ball really well in the first quarter,” head coach Kyle Lundberg said.
That was at least partially intentional. Lundberg said the Cards knew it was going to be a tough game going in.
“It wasn’t going to be decided in the first half,” he said. “We knew King’s Way wasn’t a very deep team, so we wanted to wear them out.”
The Card girls executed.
But where rebounding was their Achilles heel in their NEA championship loss to Freeman on Feb. 13, it was the hammer the Cards used to defeat King’s Way and send them packing back to Vancouver.
Although the two teams were nearly equal in defensive rebounds, it was their offensive rebounds that won the Card’s the game, nabbing 14 to King’s Way 6.
Turnovers were also a major factor, with the Card girls out-scoring King’s Way 10 to 3 off their 12 turnovers.
“Our girls kept pushing the ball and really tired them out,” Lundberg said. “From there we were able to really kick it in high gear in the second half.”
Lexie Reddel led the team in scoring with 14 points, and four rebounds. Jessica Lohman was close behind with 12, five rebounds and three points off turnovers. Ally Duncan nailed nine points and nine rebounds.
Medical Lake advanced to the state playoffs first round as the number nine seed against King’s in loser-out play at the Yakima SunDome. A win will put them into the state quarterfinals to play against number seven Meridian today at 2 p.m.
Lundberg was optimistic of the Card’s chances, noting that King’s will be a “Tough game” against a well-coached, athletic team.
“But if our girls can play to their full ability I love our chances,” Lundberg said. “Hopefully being there last year gives us an advantage. We know what to expect and the kind of atmosphere that is there.”
Lundberg noted that most people don’t understand the challenge of attaining a state tournament spot. Only 12 of 65 1A teams in the state make it to that level; 53 teams are sitting at home, spectators.
“If you think about it that way it’s really cool to be in that top 12,” Lundberg said.
Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected]
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