Medical Lake boys to play for 2A state championship
YAKIMA – After waiting a year for a second chance of a lifetime, the Medical Lake Cardinals will play for the State 2A boys basketball championship tonight.
One year to the day after a stunning semifinal loss to East Valley-Yakima, the Cardinals muscled past Chimacum 39-32 Friday at the Yakima SunDome to advance to the state title game.
Medical Lake (21-4) will face Quincy (21-6) for the state crown at 9 tonight. The win assures the Cardinals of their best State 2A tournament finish.
The Cardinals advanced largely because they were able to limit Chimacum’s super sophomore, Steven Gray, to 20 points on 7-of-24 shooting. Gray was 5 of 11 at halftime, but with Andrew Richardson in his face most of the second half, the lanky 15-year-old found it near impossible to get off an uncontested shot, hitting just 2 of 13 after intermission.
“We had guys assigned quarters on him,” Cardinals coach Arnold Brown said. “We wanted to save Drew until the second half if we could.”
The Cardinals were able to do just that thanks to a strong effort by Kevin Broadnax on Gray in the first period and a second-period switch to a zone that seemed to befuddle the Cowboys.
Brown said his backup plan was to have his best player, senior Steven Wesley, handle Gray if necessary in the final period.
That wasn’t necessary and after some struggles early, Wesley chipped in eight points and six rebounds to back up Tanner Tareski’s 13-point effort. Wesley is one of a small group back from the 2004 team and Brown said he thought his athletic senior might have been pressing in the first half.
“We were so sad after last year and I think wanting to win this so bad affected Steve a little bit,” Brown said. “He was too focused early because he really wanted to get there (to the title game).”
Chimacum (18-8) compounded its woes by not playing well defensively, particularly on rebounding.
“We just didn’t execute defensively very well,” Chimacum coach Vic Porter said. “We missed a couple of box outs and they really hurt us.”
Pullman 58, Steilacoom 47
The Greyhounds rebounded from Thursday’s heartbreaking loss to Grandview, eliminating the Sentinels and advancing to this afternoon’s fourth/seventh-place game against Cashmere.
Ben Hein, who was shut out by Grandview’s swarming defense, had 14 points in a redemptive effort. Justin Cooper led the Greyhounds with 15 points, including 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line.
Coach Ken Swanger pointed to the offensive rebounding of post George Turner, who had three offensive rebounds on missed field goals, and the 3-point shooting of Cooper as keys in the win.