Injury plays part in loss to Liberty girls
Medical Lake's Emma Heinemann seemingly tries to avoid touching the ball for fear of a turnover as Liberty (Spangle) players scramble to keep it inbounds in the Lancers' 40-36 victory.
A Liberty player looks for a way through the Medical Lake defense.
SPOKANE VALLEY - Perfection came to an end for the Medical Lake girls last week in the West Valley Eagle Classic.
While the Cardinals (8-1) handily won their opener over East Valley, 50-21 on Dec. 27, they lost their primary presence in the paint when Chiche Okembgo rolled her ankle - after scoring a game/career-high 19 points.
The injury likely played a part in Medical Lake's loss the following afternoon, 40-36, to Liberty (Spangle), head Coach Yeta Holloway suggested. "With a healthy Chiche, we win," Holloway wrote in an email.
A five-day break for the holidays showed vs. East Valley, Holloway said. His team turned the ball over 27 times against the Knights, "Most of them unforced, plus we had 19 fouls," Holloway said.
Those big foul numbers put three of the Cardinals in trouble, including Charde Luat who generally leads the way offensively but was limited to 11 against EV.
Looking to clean up play against the 2B Lancers (6-1), Holloway offered what he thought would be a good remedy.
"Before the Liberty game I held a two-hour practice to clean up the rust/errors from the EV game," Holloway explained.
Some personnel adjustments were made, as well.
"I also made Charde the primary ball handler, and playmaker," Holloway said. "It showed because we only had four turnovers that game."
Another demon, however, haunted the Cardinals who trailed 21-20 at halftime and by eight twice - 38-30 with 3:58 to play and 40-32 at the 2:25 mark - before closing in the waning minutes.
"Defense is our bread and butter, but I never imagined us shooting double-digit airballs without an opportunity to offensive rebound," Holloway said.
Luat regained her scoring leadership netting 21 points against Liberty who maybe delivered a lesson to Medical Lake heading into a return to Northeast A League play this week.
"It was a perfect scenario to keep the girls humble and hungry," Holloway said as the Cardinals were at Riverside on Jan. 3 and at Colville on Jan. 6 at 5:45 p.m.
The newspaper went to press before tipoff.
Reader Comments(0)