Medical Lake boys stomp Riverside

CHATTAROY — The Medical Lake boy’s basketball team continued its domination and extended its winning streak going into mid-season in a confident 72-43 win against the Riverside Rams (1-1, 4-6) on Friday, Jan. 3.

“It was a big-league win,” a clearly happy head coach Jordan Starr said after the game. “We saw they had a couple of big guys that couldn’t match up with our speed, athleticism and shooting so we just spaced it out and let them play.”

The plan going in, Starr said before the game, was to put 6-foot 3 senior guard Jordan Petersen on interference against the Rams athletic 5-foot-10 point guard Jaxon Betker.

Petersen accomplished the mission, sticking to Betker for most of the game and holding the normally high-scoring Riverside junior to just eight-points while also scoring a game-high 20-points himself.

From the tip-off the Cardinals played a physical game, especially under the basket with aggressive defensive rebounding to take the ball back to score on nearly every rebound, keeping the Rams score down, even holding them to single digits in the first and third quarters — the Cards outscored the Rams by a 4-1 ratio in the third — and staying aggressive.

While Petersen lead Cardinal scoring, Nick Mason brought in 14 points, followed by Ashton Hamilton-Becker with 12.

“I think we did a really good job at spacing out the floor on offense and attacking and making the extra pass,” Starr said. “Our defense was really good with trapping on screens. It was a fast-paced game that worked to our advantage.”

Medical Lake was 4-7 at the mid-season point last year.

Now at 8-1 overall and holding the top spot in the Northeast A League and, as of Monday, Jan. 6, ranked second in the state in the 1A division by the WIAA RPI index with a 3-0 record, there is a palpable difference in the team’s attitude and ability on the hardwood.

Asked about that difference after Friday’s win, Petersen said there were fewer individuals and more of a team this year.

“We’re a family,” he said.

The Cardinals travel to NEA second place Deer Park (3-0,8-2) on Friday, Jan. 10, and a 5:30 p.m. tip-off in what will surely be a test of their team resolve in a shoot-out against last year’s Northeast 1A champions who are currently ranked No. 8 statewide by the WIAA.

Then it’s off to Cashmere the following day for some non-league action against the always-tough Caribou Trail League Bulldogs.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].