Medical Lake wins 20th, earns spot in state semifinals
YAKIMA – Medical Lake didn’t want to leave anything to chance. With the memory of 2004’s exhausting double-overtime quarterfinal against Cashmere lurking in their minds, the last thing the Cardinals wanted in Thursday’s Class 2A State Tournament quarterfinal at the Yakima SunDome was to let the talented Bulldogs stay too close.
Sprinting to a 19-9 lead after one period, the Cardinals (20-4) dashed to a 48-41 win over the Bulldogs, moving into the semifinals for the second straight year. Medical Lake will play Chimacum, a 53-46 winner over Nooksack Valley, at 5:30 tonight. Meanwhile, Pullman fell to Grandview by a score of 42-41.
A win would keep the Cardinals hope of the school’s first state basketball title alive. Medical Lake was second in 1964 and 1995 and third in 2004.
The win continued an impressive run for Medical Lake. Since losing their first two Great Northern League contests, the Cardinals are 14-2. “We got a great effort,” Cardinals coach Arnold Brown said. “I don’t want to sy these kids overacheived. But they sure work hard.”
The Cardinals got the win with depth. Tanner Tareski led the way with 13 points, but four other teammates scored between seven and nine points to back him up.
“Tanner Tareski is really a football player who is helping us out,” Brown said. “He did a great job today.”
Medical Lake used an 8-0 run starting the third period to break a tight game open. It is a testament to the Cardinals’ balance that four different players during the brief uprising.
The Cardinals defense had a big hand in the win, holding the explosive Bulldogs to just 32.6 percent field goal shooting, including 29.6 percent in the second half. The 41 points was the lowest offensive output of the year for Cashmere. The Bulldogs scored more than 70 points eight times during the season.
Grandview 42, Pullman 41
Pullman raced to a 33-23 lead after three periods, but the offense bogged down in the fourth period and 2002 champion Grandview overtook the Greyhounds to move into tonight’s late semifinal.
Pullman will play Steilacoom, a loser to Quincy in the late quarterfinal, today at 2 p.m. A win would move Pullman to the fourth/seventh game Saturday afternoon.
Pullman had a chance to win with possession after a timeout with eight seconds left. A play was set up to get the ball to Ben Hein but the ball was kicked out of bounds along the baseline with one second left. Pullman wasn’t able to do anything with the ball in the final second.
“We were in control of the tempo for three quarters but in the fourth quarter we played not to lose,” a disappointed Pullman coach Ken Swanger said. “We didn’t get enough shot attempts in the fourth period.” Pullman got just eight field goal attempts in the period, hitting three.
Grandview took the same number of shots, hitting five. The difference was at the free throw line where Grandview was eight of 13. Pullman hit two of its four attempts from the line.
An uncommon Grandview lapse at the free throw line allowed Pullman to stay in the game. After hitting eight of its first nine attempts, Grandview missed on two straight double bonuses in the final 44 seconds.
Justin Cooper led Pullman with nine points; J.T. Levenseller and Ashton Gant had eight each. Chris Mejia had 15 points to pace Grandview.