Defense Delivers For Ml Medical Lake In Title Game Thanks To Simmons’ Effort

Once Medical Lake guard Carlos Simmons found his rhythm, it was hard to stop him, even after the Cardinals’ 65-46 win over Cascade in the semifinals of the boys State A high school basketball tournament Friday night in the Tacoma Dome.

The 5-foot-7 sophomore scored a team-high 15 points and shut down Ryan Hansen, the Kodiaks’ leading scorer. After receiving the game’s sportsmanship award, Simmons ran over to the Medical Lake band and played drums to the song “The Final Countdown.”

The final countdown ends when the title game starts, tonight at 8.

“I’m not satisfied,” Simmons said of getting to the state championship game.

The Cardinals (20-5) are in the finals for the first time since 1964, when they lost to Elma 75-66. Medical Lake takes on the Cashmere Bulldogs (21-4), who beat La Center 65-51 in the other semifinal game.

The Cardinals eliminated the Bulldogs, 54-53, in the third round of the tournament last year.

“I remember it vividly,” Cashmere coach Miles Caples said. “They (his players) have a lot of respect for Medical Lake. We’re going to have to play well.”

Medical Lake isn’t the only Northeast A league team in the trophy round. Chewelah, led by the 36 points of Jeremy Landram, also advanced with a 67-57 win in a loser-out contest with Port Townsend (19-7). The Cougars (19-9) face Castle Rock (20-5) in the game for fourth and seventh places. A win would tie Chewelah’s best state finish.

As much as Simmons’ offense sparked the Cardinals, his defense was the difference.

Cascade buried three 3-pointers to open the game and made 12 of 23 first-half shots. Hansen led the way, hitting 6 of 10, including three 3s, for 19 points in the first half.

“It was obvious Hansen was killing us,” Medical Lake coach Dave Olzendam said. “I hoped they couldn’t keep shooting like they were shooting.”

Cascade didn’t.

With a defensive switch that put Simmons on Hansen, the Cascade offense shut down. Medical Lake held the Kodiaks to just 3-for-25 shooting in the second half.

“I felt like I could get by him,” said Hansen, “but if I did, there was another guy. If I got by him, there was another guy and another.”

Cascade’s defense held Medical Lake standout Joe Deutsch to just five points in the first half. The Kodiaks couldn’t stop him early in the second, however. The 6-foot-5 senior scored six points in an 8-0 Cardinals run.

Medical Lake outscored Cascade 12-2 in the third quarter.

“That’s like fourth- and fifthgrade AAU ball,” said Hansen, who missed eight straight shots to open the second half.

The Kodiaks’ shooting woes stretched beyond the 3-point arc. After hitting 5 of 11 in the first half, Cascade missed all 11 3-point attempts in the second.

“You hope they go a little cold. They did. They went cold,” Olzendam said. “I was pleased as punch to see those misses.”

As the Cascade shooting dipped below 12 percent in the second half, Medical Lake heated up.

Simmons led the way with nine fourth-quarter points, and did not miss any of his four field goals and three free throws in the second half.

“He has the ability to score, especially when he gets his confidence,” Olzendam said.

Deutsch scored 13, Lamar Bailey added 12 and Dan Huston had 10 for the Cardinals. Deutsch also had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Medical Lake 17 15 12 21 - 65 Cascade 20 17 2 7 - 46

MEDICAL LAKE (65) - Bailey 12, Moffatat 8, Huston 10, J. Deutsch 13, Fischhaber 4, Verstrate, Simmons 15, Blum 2, Delp, Campbell 1, M. Deutsch, Cortez. CASCADE (46) - Hansen 23, Force, goehner 10, McDevitt 3, Ballew 2, McGregor 1, Warren, McIver, Anderson, Piestrup 7.

Chewelah 67, Port Townsend 57

Emotion played a big factor in this game. Neither team had much to begin with.

“We were both pretty flat,” Chewelah coach Drew Landram said.

Chewelah was coming off a drubbing by Cashmere on Thursday and Port Townsend lost to La Center.

It wasn’t until the end of the first half that some emotion started to show. Unfortunately for the Redskins, it was in the form of some remarks by the bench after the halftime horn had sounded. A technical foul was called and Jeremy Landram made two free throws for Chewelah to begin the second half before any time had run off the clock.

Steve Murbach added two quick buckets as the Cougars stretched their 27-21 halftime lead to 33-21 just more than 2 minutes into the second half.

Once the Cougars built their lead, it was all Landram.

The junior guard scored 26 points in the second half. He made 14 of 19 free throws in the second quarter and tied a single-game tournament record with 24 free-throw attempts. He made 19, one shy of the record.

Port Townsend 15 6 12 24 - 57 Chewelah 16 11 22 18 - 67

PORT TOWNSEND (57) - Logue 3, D’Agostino 15, Fox 6, Johnson 5, Eaton 11, Martin, Klontz, Abbott 1, Little 12, Jaynes 4, Joy.

CHEWELAH (67) - Je. Lamdram 36, Murbach 11, Boone 7, Belzer 12, Rainer 1, Skok, Keeley, Ja. Landram, Rogers.