Nea Trio Would Like To Follow Old Scripts

The Lakeside boys and girls basketball teams would like to do exactly as they did at last year’s State A high school tournaments, except play a little later on Saturday. The 6 and 8 p.m. championship games rather than the consolation finals would be nice.

Medical Lake’s boys won’t mind repeating its 1995 performance, but the ending would be different.

Last year, the Lakeside boys and girls mirrored each other, winning their first two games, dropping their third and coming back to finish third at state.

In 1995, Medical Lake fell one game short of winning the title, losing to Cashmere in the finals 69-59.

The unranked Cardinals’ first game at state (Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.) presents a huge challenge. ML (18-6) meets defending state champion La Center, the only undefeated boys team (23-0) and the Associated Press’ No. 1 team.

The Wildcats are riding a 40-game winning streak.

“I’ve seen so many strange things happen over there,” said ML coach Dave Olzendam.

If the Cardinals pull off the upset, flashy senior point guard Carlos Simmons needs to be on. Simmons averages 14 points per game, but is capable of exploding for more. Center Brandon Moore scores 12 points per game and Andre Jackson accounts for 10.

Defensively, the Cardinals will need to find a way to control La Center’s 6-foot-5 senior Derek VanWeerdhulzen and 6-6 junior Dustin VanWeerdhulzen. Derek, a shooting guard, averages 28 points per game and Dustin, a point guard, has been good for 23.

The winner will meet No. 10 Foster or Castle Rock at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

The No. 6 Lakeside boys (17-4) and No. 2 Lakeside girls (21-1) both meet unranked opponents in their first games.

Cashmere (18-6) is first up for the boys. The team features 6-4 junior Jake Kerns (15.8 ppg) and 5-11 senior Jordan Green (10.8 ppg). The Eagles’ leading scorers are Billy Bender (15.7 ppg), Mike Dasenbrock (14.5 ppg) and George Petticrew (14 ppg). The winner will meet No. 2 King’s or No. 5 Zillah on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. Zillah knocked Lakeside into the losers’ bracket last year and finished second overall.

The girls take on Charles Wright Academy (17-5) of Tacoma at 9 a.m.

Eagles coach Lisa Schultz said her team must guard against 6-1 junior Bridget Wilcox (15.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg) and 5-5 point guard Amy Bates (7.7 ppg). The winner of the game will meet the winner of the No. 5 Cascade vs. La Center game at 5 p.m. Thursday. Cascade lost in the finals last season.

, DataTimes