Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Including Friday night's 53-40 loss to No. 7 ranked Woodbury, the boys basketball team has faced a whopper of a schedule through its first 10 games. They have played one strong team after another and went into Tuesday's game at Hastings (1-9, 0-2) with a respectable 5-5 record. But where a major opportunity exists is how the team performs after the opening tip.

In what has become a troubling trend this season, the Rangers got behind 26-14 to the Royals in the first half, in what now amounts to a 133-70 disadvantage in Forest Lake's five losses. That's a lot of points to make up on programs that mingle at the top of the charts.

"We play a tough schedule so we have to elevate our game night to night to compete," head coach Dan Cremisino noted. "I believe we can and will."

On Friday evening, the Rangers knew they had to contain Woodbury's Max Hintz, and they were largely successful with that task. Hintz came in averaging more than 26 points per game, but the defense was able to limit him to just 16.

"We were able to hold them (Woodbury) to 25 points below their average, but we did not shoot well enough to win," Cremisino shared. "We took more field goal attempts than they did but just did not convert."

The difficult fact is that once Forest Lake was down by 12 points going into the second half, the Rangers were in trouble.

In the list of Pros, in what is another recurring theme, the boys didn't give up and they stayed with the Royals after halftime, by the score of 27-26, in favor of Woodbury. This is yet another example that proves Forest Lake can compete with some of the best teams in the state, but spotting great schools an average of 12 points will generally lead to a disappointing finish.

Senior Aaron Jacobs was the only Ranger in double-figures as he led the team in scoring with 10 points. Behind him were senior Matt Hansmann with nine and senior Corey Kueffler with eight.

Forest Lake was at Hastings on Tuesday, where they beat the Raiders, 72-60. The boys host White Bear Lake (6-5, 1-1) on Friday, Jan. 12, before traveling to Robbinsdale-Armstrong (8-3) this coming Tuesday.

"This week we have got to get some of our shooters going and find more ways to score more points," Cremisino stated. "We will look to push the tempo a bit more."

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