The Forest Lake girls basketball team entered its home contest versus White Bear Lake on Tuesday, Jan. 30, on a hot five-game winning streak – with those big wins coming against Suburban East Conference opponents Irondale, East Ridge, Park of Cottage Grove, Cretin-Derham Hall and Roseville over the span of 14 days. However, the Rangers’ bid for six straight wins fell short when Forest Lake lost to the Bears by a final score of 69-43.
White Bear Lake, one of the current favored teams to win the conference, controlled the tempo early in the matchup, allowing the Bears to get ahead of the Rangers by as many as 13 points in the first half. The Bears led the Rangers 29-16 at halftime– the squad struggling to find the key to staying consistent on the offensive end.
Co-head coach of the Rangers girls basketball program Jen Wagner said she knew entering the SEC rival matchup was going to be tough.
“We knew White Bear Lake was also going to come in on sort of this high – they’ve only lost one game in the conference. They’re a well-coached team and have some pretty athletic kids that can hit shots and look to push in transition. They had a player that was a little bit of a tougher matchup for us – little bit longer and taller – so her length gave us an issue and she was just able to score in multiple ways,” Wagner said. “So we knew we had to come in trusting what we’ve been doing the last five games, but also understanding the level of the opponent we were getting against them,” Wagner said.
The girls came out of halftime with a little more offensive spark. Sophomore guard Kendal Damon and senior guard Amelia Espelien gave a much needed boost for the Rangers off the bench, while they would lead the way in scoring for Forest Lake with 9 points each.
The Rangers nearly doubled their scoring output from the first half to 27 points in the second. However, the defense had troubles making stops and made it harder for the Rangers to claw their way back into the game.
“It’s tough,” Wagner said. “We were coming in and the kids were feeling really good and real solid about the process that we’ve been initiating and having all season. ...White Bear Lake is a very talented team; they’ve really been able to show out in our conference and show some big things. The kids are disappointed because they feel like we didn’t give our best effort – we didn’t really get our best punch at them and so it was a matter of evaluating what we were going to do better and do differently,” Wagner said.
Stillwater
The Rangers then suffered a 80-50 loss against Stillwater at home on Thursday, Feb. 1. Stillwater entered the matchup as heavy favorites to not only win the game but come out as a top SEC team just behind White Bear Lake.
“We felt like we had a great plan – our girls were locked in and giving their best efforts. Amy Thompson is just a dog, man. I mean, she hit shots where I felt our defensive effort was high – we didn’t give her wide open layups in transition, we didn’t give her open shots. She was impressive, and it was tough. Because when you’re working and working – you try to do things and that kid just hits a shot – sometimes good offense beats good defense or vice versa.”
The Rangers gained momentum early in a back-and-forth scoring barrage with the Ponies to open up the game, as senior guard Cassidy Pitzl – who recently recorded her 1,000th career point – kept the game close throughout by staying efficient on the offensive end. Sophomore Hailey Dereu tallied a series of tough buckets before turnovers became an issue for the Forest Lake offense as Stillwater began to take advantage of those Ranger miscues.
Amy Thompson of Stillwater couldn’t be contained as she totaled 31 points heading into halftime; the Rangers trailed by 20 points at 49-29.
In the second half of play, the Rangers struggled to keep it close; however, they orchestrated a better half defensively by holding the Ponies to 17 fewer points in the second, allowing just 31. Pitzl led the matchup in scoring for the Rangers with 16 points, while Dereu totaled 13 points. Senior Liv Fearing recorded 11 points and matched her season-high, along with Espelien scoring 6 points. The contest ultimately resulted in a 80-50 loss for Forest Lake, sending them to a .500 record at 10-10 on the 2023-24 campaign.
The Rangers did pull out a 61-46 victory over Anoka on Monday, Feb. 5. The Rangers took a five-point lead going into the half with the score at 25-20. The Rangers then put up another 36 in the second half, out-scoring the Twisters by ten. Pitzl lead the Rangers with 19 points, followed by Hailey Dereu’s 16.
The Rangers will go on the road for games against Woodbury on Friday, Feb. 9, and Mounds View on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
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