Blackhawks, Cardinals ready

CHENEY - West Plains basketball teams have essentially reached the part of their respective schedules where practice has hopefully paid off.

The Cheney boys and girls embarked on their Greater Spokane League schedule, Jan. 10.

With the contraction of the Northeast A League from seven to four teams over the offseason, Medical Lake still has a handful of contests until its Jan. 16 opener at Colville.

Cheney boys:

Cheney got a nice little bounce as the new year dawned as the Blackhawks claimed a pair of victories at the GESA Winter Shootout in Wenatchee, improving to 3-7 in the preseason.

Cheney topped Juanita 76-49, Jan. 2 and Kiona-Benton 68-64 the following day before closing play with a 57-39 loss to Post Falls. The non-league schedule came to an end Jan. 7 night vs. Lewis and Clark.

"It will be our last chance to prepare for GSL league play," head coach Travis Peevey wrote in an email. "We were in a lot of games that we could have won but weren't able to capitalize down the stretch."

The Blackhawks ditched some of those bad habits last week with strong second-half efforts against Juanita and Kiona-Benton.

Cheney was in high gear against Jaunita winning every quarter and then used a 22-8 fourth quarter to rally for the victory against K-B. Grayson Burton netted 18 and 22 points respectively to lead Cheney in the wins.

"We will continue to improve on finishing games and playing a complete four quarters," Peevey said. Mental toughness is a huge piece of that and Peevey suggested his team will get better every day.

Some sickness over the holiday break was somewhat of a setback. "We are senior heavy so no surprises, but I've been happy with guys stepping up in their role," Peevey said.

"We learned what we needed to do to improve and worked hard over winter break," Peevey said. "Our guys know what's in front of us and we are excited for league play."

Cheney girls:

Cheney's girls at 4-6 are a win shy of their entire totals from last season.

They come off a 58-33 loss to Northwest Christian in the Eagle Holiday Classic, Dec. 30 where Kaylee Kohlman led the Blackhawks with eight points and a 71-41 loss to Mead as Natalie Richards' 10 points topped Cheney.

"The preseason game schedule that we had this year allowed for us to find a little confidence going into league play and to find areas that we really needed to focus on during practice," heads coach Meredith Richards wrote in an email.

She thinks her team is starting to understand that being disciplined in their play, "And taking care of the "little things" where fundamentals) every game can be the difference between a win or a loss."

Still in need of work is finding consistency in the little things.

"Working hard in drills and carrying those fundamentals through into the next drill, the next scrimmage and into games, to avoid falling back into old habits," Richards said.

How or if shots drop or what calls are going to go their way are nothing that can be controlled so "We talk about attitude and effort every single day. Those are the two things that are completely in our control every single time we step onto the court," Richards said.

Medical Lake boys:

The Cardinals won eight games all last season, but that was a marked improvement over just one in 2022-23.

So far, they are 7-3 and have won largely on the strength of a lineup that is quite youthful with five freshman in the lineup.

Head coach Brett Ward Is in his second season with the program after having previously coached ML's girls and senses things beyond the won-lost record.

"We have made some good progress thus far," Ward wrote in an email. "Having so many freshmen, it has been important for us to play some non-league games."

Freshmen Gabe Smith routinely leads the team in scoring and fellow ninth-grader Hudson Gilbert hits for double-digits regularly, indicating the jump to a varsity pace has not been much of a hurdle.

"They are starting to get used to the grind of high school basketball and barely showing signs of youth," Ward said.

Offense has come easier for this team than Ward thought it would he said. "They are so young that I thought it would take some time for us to adjust."

Medical Lake girls:

Graduation hit the Cards hard, especially with the loss of Charde Luat, a four-time All-NEA selection point guard.

That left second-year head coach Yeta Holloway with a chore whose team is currently 4-5, "But (we) can easily been 7-2," Holloway said.

Nine games in and Holloway said he couldn't be more-proud than how the girls are improving as a team.

A big challenge comes as a small school where Holloway said they share athletes, and thus the girls don't - or can't play much basketball in the off-season, "So learning how to play happens during the season," Holloway explained.

That on-the-job training expanded this season with the NEA losing three member schools due to reclassification.

"We have a larger preseason schedule to evaluate ourselves," Holloway said. "Our most important stretch for growth is Lind-Ritzville, Davenport, and Reardan. These three schools are tough matchups for us, but they will be fun to play."

The things that still need work are related to "playing basketball," Holloway said, adding that includes reading defenses and finding open players.

"We're getting better, but like most teams, scoring the basketball is an area that needs the most work," Holloway said.