Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Before the girls basketball team even got on the bus last Friday, a trip to Hastings looked like a difficult assignment. Waiting for Forest Lake (8-13, 4-9) was a Raiders squad who saw a large lead evaporate under Forest Lake’s defensive pressure in their first meeting, and eventually lose, 56-50.

On Feb. 9, Hastings (10-11, 4-8) would get out early, and take a 31-18 lead into halftime and end the night with a 61-48 victory.

“I’m sure Hastings had in the back of their mind, Hey, we were up by 16 last time and ended up losing,” head coach Jen Wagner said.

Wagner was frustrated to see her team’s normally aggressive defense play on the passive side, and the offense settle too often against the Raiders zone.

“When you put in a defensive night where you have a lot of breakdowns, and a night on offense where we might not have attacked as much as we normally do, you know, it didn’t work in our favor.”

For Hastings, in addition to the 6’8” Catherine Hintz picking up 16 points, the Raiders also had Sarah Duea leading all scorers with 17.

Gina Lange put in 13 points for the Rangers, and Janelle Winiecki showed she was feeling better by collecting a dozen.

Kelsey Kosman and Andrea Thompson would each get nine points, but the rest of the squad couldn’t keep up offensively with Hastings.

“It was tough on Friday,” Wagner said. “Obviously you want to win, but you know you really didn’t give them your best effort.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, Forest Lake had another challenging matchup with a road game at No. 6 Woodbury, and then host Totino-Grace on Friday before heading to Duluth East for a Saturday afternoon game.

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