Posted: 12/18/02

Red-hot Rangers win four in a row

Berk Brown
Sports Editor
For a few brief moments Saturday night, the thought of extending its winning streak to four games was the furthest thing from the Rangersí minds.

When senior Joey Ryan went down with an injury early in the game against Maple Grove, visions of last year ñÝwhen Ryanís season was lost to a knee injury ñÝran through the Forest Lake gym.

Fortunately for the Rangers, Ryanís injury was only a sprained ankle and his teammates picked up the slack in taking a 59-38 victory which improved Forest Lake to 4-1.

ìThe kids pulled together,î Forest Lake coach Chuck Gunderson said.

The injury to Ryan, which Gunderson said may keep him out for up to a week, was part of a bumpy first quarter which saw the game tied at 6-6 after eight minutes.

From that point on, however, the Rangers found their rhythm offensively and cruised to victory. It was the Rangersí fourth straight win after falling to St. Paul Como Park in the season opener.
Also last week, the Rangers defeated a ranked Tartan team 67-59 on Tuesday, Dec. 10, and held off Centennial 54-48 on Thursday, Dec. 12.

The key to Forest Lakeís short winning streak, Gunderson said, has been the Rangersí patience on offense and intensity on defense.

ìThe most crucial thing (in the wins over Tartan and Centennial) was the way we played defense,î Gunderson said. ìThe kids played really, really well defensively.

ìOffensively, weíre making the extra pass and getting better shot selection the last four games. That makes so much of a difference.î

Especially so against Maple Grove, as the Rangersí patience on offense allowed several players to step forward in the absence of Ryan.

Steve Korthals and Tom Frericks each had a team-high 12 points against the Crimson. Lance Overson added 11 points and also grabbed eight rebounds.

Kevin Keto, despite being just 5-foot-9, led the Rangers with 10 rebounds and the point guard also had three steals.

In Forest Lakeís wins over Tartan and Centennial, the Rangers had to make late charges to earn the victory.

In the 54-48 win over the Cougars, Ryan and Frericks each hit crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help Forest Lake rally from a one-point deficit entering the final period.

Ryan finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds while Keto and Overson had 10 points apiece.

In the upset over Tartan, the Rangers were nearly perfect in the final quarter, and they needed to be.

The Titans cut Forest Lakeís lead to 57-54 with 2:36 to play on a 3-pointer by Abe Kpaka.
Ryan, however, followed with a three-point play to push Forest Lakeís lead back to six points with 1:31 left.

Ryan and Frericks then went a combined 6 of 6 from the foul line to help secure the 67-59 win.

Ryan scored 13 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter for the Rangers while Keto and Overson had 14 points apiece.

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