Posted: 12/18/02

FL girls can't stop top-ranked Woodbury

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

All good things must come to an end. Such was the case with the Forest Lake girls basketball teamís three-game winning streak last week.

Forest Lake, 3-2, suffered a 63-30 loss at the hands of top-ranked Woodbury on Friday and fell 50-35 at Robbinsdale Armstrong on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Things started well for the Rangers against the No. 1 Royals, but an early 4-4 tie soon turned into a 17-4 Woodbury lead as the Royals ended the first quarter on a 13-0 run.

Woodbury then maintained a comfortable lead throughout the game. Forest Lake coach Jack Bender, however, took some consolation out of the fact the Rangers played well early and then outscored the Royals 9-8 in the third quarter.

ìIf there were any positives for us at all, it was that the first half of the first quarter we played OK and the third quarter we played OK,î Bender said.

Forest Lakeís struggles against the Royals were more a result of not being able to get off shots as opposed to making them.

Forest Lake went 10 of 25 from the field (40 percent) in the game.

ìWe just had a lot of trouble getting shots,î Bender said. ìWoodbury is just a great basketball team.

ìThey really forced us completely out of everything we wanted to do offensively.î

Lindsey Anderson led the Rangers with 10 points while Christie Brink finished with seven on 2 of 2 shooting from the field and 3 of 3 shooting from the foul line.

In the loss to Armstrong, Forest Lake struggled taking care of the ball and hitting its shots.

The Rangers committed 32 turnovers in the game and shot just 33 percent (11 of 33) from the field and only 50 percent (10 of 20) from the foul line.

ìIt was just one of those games where (Armstrongís) pressure got to us a little bit and we werenít really patient offensively,î Bender said.

Armstrong also was able to capitalize on a height advantage and the Falcons threw a trio of six-footers at the Rangers.

ìWe had a little bit of trouble handling that,î Bender said.

Anderson scored a team-high 13 points for the Rangers while Mary Sobiech had 11.
Forest Lake will face Champlin Park on Friday at Target Center in Minneapolis.

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