Golden Feather back in Medical Lake

CHENEY — The Blackhawks were only able to keep the Golden Feather Trophy one year before the Cardinal’s took it back at the 10th annual Golden Feather Spirit Games at Eastern Washington University’s Reese Court last Saturday evening.

Medical Lake’s boys basketball team (4-1, 11-2) balanced out the Cardinal girls’ loss with a signature last second 53-50 finish over the Blackhawks (1-3, 2-9) in the non-league game in which both teams traded the lead multiple times.

The Cardinals held a six-point lead going into the half, and managed to maintain the lead at the end of each quarter, but as the game’s final seconds wound down it was tied until mid-way through the fourth when Cheney hung onto a slim lead by answering the Cardinals point-for-point.

Then, with less than 20-seconds left on the clock and the game tied at 50, Cheney’s 6-foot-1-inch Trinidad Richardson’s potentially game winning 2-point field goal was blocked by a withering Cardinal defense led by 6-foot-4 Nick Mason.

Mason then sank the ball at the other end of the court for two-points and a 52-50 Cardinal lead.

A Blackhawk technical foul against Jordan Petersen allowed him to sink one of two free-throws to seal a Cardinal victory with half a second left to play.

Medical Lake’s Eugene Haas led scoring for the Cards with 17, followed closely by Ashton Hamilton Becker with 16 and Mason 10.

From the Cheney bench, Kaiden Custer did the lions share of the offensive work for the Blackhawks with 15-points, while Josh Whiteley scored 13.

The highlights of the event — girls and boys basketball — were punctuated by skits and tests of skill between quarters and halves at each game.

And in the end, after nearly all the events were scored in equal measure — the relays, the noise meter, the basketball games — it was just two categories that tipped the balance. While Cheney edged out Medical Lake in fundraising, it was the Cardinal half-time skit — the event worth the most points — that won the day to give them the edge they needed to return the Golden Feather Trophy to Medical Lake High School.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].