Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

With No. 3 Woodbury coming to town on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the boys basketball team was able to rest up during a relaxing week. The Rangers had just one game and that was against Hastings last Friday. As in, oh for the conference, Hastings.

In their first meeting, Forest Lake (11-8, 6-5) defeated the Raiders, 72-60, and on Feb. 9, it would be a game of runs, with the Rangers getting the bigger scoring spurts for the 65-57 win.

“We came out a little flat at first, but we found a rhythm and went up 22-7, then kind of relaxed and Hastings went on a little run,” head coach Dan Cremisino said.

“We went up by 15 again but the last three minutes we let them close the gap to seven at half.”

While Hastings (2-18, 0-10) never let this game get too far out of reach, they also couldn’t reel in the Rangers.

“We were trying some new things and we really lost our rhythm. I felt like we spent the rest of the game out of sync although we bumped it up to 15 point leads a couple of different times,” Cremisino said.

Aaron Jacobs was too much for the Raiders to handle, as he set the tone on offense by picking up 22 points, going 11 of 14 from the field, while also pulling down eight rebounds.

Helping out Jacobs were a group of teammates, led by Ryan Brown and Brandon Phelps, with 10 points apiece. Matt Hansmann chipped in with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists; Josh Williams had six points, and Drew Cremisino had five points, four boards and four assists.

“Matt Hansmann continues to defend the best players in the conference and hold them down well below their average,” coach Cremisino said.

Trent Vedders poured in 22 for Hastings, but the 57 points for the team falls right in line with Forest Lake’s league-leading defense.

“Hastings never gave up, to their credit, and played hard up to the end,” coach Cremisino noted.

The D had the big challenge against Woodbury on Tuesday, and then the Rangers go north for a Saturday afternoon game at Duluth East.

“We are better but we have not played our best basketball yet,” coach Cremisino said.

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