Medical Lake's Kevin Broadnax, center, is fouled by Chimacum's Adam McWilliams, right, as Nick Worley (44) plays defense. JEFF HALLER/ Yakima Herald-Republic

Medical Lake beats
Chimacum, 39-32 

Cardinals hold Cowboys' high-scoring
Steven Gray to 20, advance to championship

By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

It didn’t matter that Medical Lake played out of sync and out of character for most of its Class 2A state semifinal game with Chimacum.

It didn’t matter that the Cardinals shot only 39 percent from the field, a horrid 37 percent from the foul line and that they scored the second-lowest point total of their season.

Because the bottom line is that their season will end when and where they’d hoped it would — in Saturday’s championship game in the SunDome.

Medical Lake achieved a yearlong goal by subduing the Cowboys and sophomore superstar Steven Gray 39-32 Friday night, thereby earning a spot opposite either Grandview or Quincy in Saturday’s 9 o’clock finale.

“This has been the talk all year, since the first whistle the first day of practice,” said 6-foot-5 senior standout Steven Wesley. “I’ve been thinking about this ever since that day when I missed that shot with six seconds left.”

That day was Friday of last year’s tournament, when East Valley took advantage of Wesley’s misfire to claim a narrow semifinal victory.

This time, despite its aforementioned struggles, Medical Lake ran its record to 21-4 by controlling the tempo and, comparatively speaking, Gray.

After games of 36 and 31 points, the 6-2 standout managed only 20 on 7-for-24 shooting against a variety of defenses.

Rendered meaningless, then, was a seven-point fourth quarter by the Cardinals that featured 5-of-15 shooting from the foul stripe.

And while Wesley was scoring only eight points, more than 11 under his season average, 6-1 senior Tanner Tareski provided just enough punch with a team-high 13 which included two 3-pointers during the Cardinals’ pivotal third-quarter.

Down 19-16 at halftime, with Smith having scored 13 points, Medical Lake switched from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone and became more patient on offense.

Gray couldn’t score, after all, if his team didn’t have the ball.

A Tareski trey gave the Cardinals a 23-20 lead, reserve Tim Morris converted a three-point play off an offensive rebound and Tareski followed with another 3-ball, this off a kickout pass from Wesley, and the advantage had become 31-23 with 3:24 left in the third quarter.

Kevin Broadnax made one of two free throws to close the 16-4 period with Medical Lake up 32-23.

And free throw woes notwithstanding, the Cardinals’ lead was no smaller than six points thereafter.

Gray, meanwhile, was 2 for 13 during the second half.

“The first half we had Kevin (5-8 Broadnax) on Gray, figuring he was low to the ground and could maybe mess with his dribble,” ML coach Arnold Brown said. “We’d planned to have a different kid guard him each quarter to maybe wear him down, but we got some fouls and weren’t playing our man the way we were supposed to. We weren’t shooting very well, either, so we wanted to slow it down some and make them play defense.”

Brown was especially pleased with the 6-3 Morris, a football standout who hadn’t played basketball until this season.

“Best game he’s played all year,” Brown said of Morris’ seven-point, seven-rebound performance. “He picked the right time to come out and play like that.”

And the Cardinals are right where they want to be, having held the Cowboys to fewer points (32) than Gray had averaged (33.5) through their first two games here.

“This is what we wanted after everything that happened last year,” said Wesley. “Right after that game we said we’d be back because we had unfinished business.”

Chimacum, 18-8, will play at 5 p.m. Saturday in a game for third and sixth places.