Medical Lake'sSteven Wesley, left, Tanner Tareski and Cameron Hayes savor an emotional moment midcourt after coming from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Quincy 44-41 for the Class 2A boys state championship Saturday.   JEFF HALLER/Yakima Herald-Republic View all photos for this story.

Cardinals rally with 19-0 run for 44-41 victory

By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

It began inauspiciously enough, with Kevin Broadnax scoring a seemingly unimportant, unspectacular field goal.

It ended a quarter and a half later with Broadnax’s coach, Arnold Brown, sprinting around the SunDome court in triumph, celebrating Medical Lake’s come-from-behind 44-41 victory over Quincy in the Class 2A state championship game Saturday night.

“We have seniors on this team, some very special seniors,” said a winded Brown, sitting on his bench while his players cut down the nets. “When we were down, I told those seniors, ‘It’s time.’”

Time, indeed.

Thankfully for the Cardinals there was 3:59 left in the third quarter when Gabe Lopez’s layup gave Quincy a 37-23 lead.

What followed, starting with Broadnax’s hoop, was a 19-0 Medical Lake run that computed to a 42-37 lead with 2:43 left in the game. And while the Jackrabbits closed the gap via Smokey Baughman’s inside field goal and two free throws by Chris Pontarolo-Maag with 1:50 left, the Cardinals ran the clock down to 8.9 seconds, at which point Andy Davis made both ends of a one-and-one.

Still, Quincy had a chance to tie, but Dustin Kniep’s 3-pointer from the corner bounced away at the buzzer.

It was the first title for Medical Lake, which ended its season 21-4 and had made two previous Class 2A appearances. Last season the Cardinals reached the semifinals before suffering a 51-50 loss to East Valley.

Quincy, in its first 2A championship game after snapping Grandview’s 17-game winning streak the night before, finished 21-7.

And Brown, it turned out, had added inspiration. He had played at Medical Lake, class of 82, and his coach was Jack Cleveland.

“He had great success here and his wife was here tonight rooting for us,” Brown said of the former East Valley girls coach who passed away in 2003 after guiding the Red Devils to back-to-back state titles. “And we needed all the help we could get.”

Especially given their 25-14 halftime deficit, which grew to 30-14 early in the third quarter.

But after using a 2-3 zone during the first half, which the poised and patient Jackrabbits exploited by running large amounts of time off the clock and simultaneously exhausting huge amounts of Medical Lake’s pressure, Arnold switched to a man-to-man.

More specifically, he assigned 6-foot-5 senior Steven Wesley to guard Quincy standout Matt Medina, who had 13 first-half points and hit his first five 3-pointers.

“He was hitting threes,” said Wesley. “I said, ‘Coach, put me on him. And that was that.’”

The Cardinals’ defense limited Quincy to 16 second-half points and only four in the fourth quarter.

And while Wesley and sharpshooter Tanner Tareski were providing the firepower to get Medical Lake back in it, scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively, deep reserve Davis added nine second-half points.

“He’s one of those seniors,” said Brown. “He’s the quarterback on our football team.”

Medina led all scorers with 21 points, but his team shot only 29 percent the second half and was outrebounded 12-8. Wesley was the game’s top board man with eight.

“We always have faith,” said Davis. “We never give up. That’s why we’re standing here champions — we never gave up.”