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Boys hoop team drops 3 more |
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 |
Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Last week marked the end of Round One for the boys basketball season, as Forest Lake has now faced every team in the Suburban East Conference. Before the Rangers host White Bear Lake on Friday night, the boys hosted Robbinsdale-Armstrong, with an eye on reversing the slump that had them losing five of their last six.
“We have had a tough stretch for the past three weeks,” head coach Dan Cremisino explained. “The first 10 games we had a lot of things going right for us — we hit a big shot when we needed to, made free throws, got a key stop, had a call go our way...the last six games we have struggled with all of the above.”
On Feb. 1, Forest Lake was in Cottage Grove to take on a Park Wolfpack squad that is well below .500 in the SEC.
Supplying a minor twist to most of their conference matchups, the Rangers actually held a one-point lead heading into intermission.
With about nine minutes remaining in the game, however, the night fell apart for Forest Lake, and they would go down by the score of 79-60.
“The Park game was disappointing because we had opportunities to put the game away in both halves. We led by as much as eight points before Park went on a 23-3 run,” Cremisino said.
The problem? See, All of the above.
“We missed front ends of the bonus, both shots in double bonus, turned it over, missed shots, etcetera.”
Another problem came with trying to slow the Wolfpack’s Jake Lindstrom. The leading scorer in the metro area cut loose for five three-pointers (31 points), and once Park (3-6, 7-11) took the lead they played smart, outscoring the Rangers by 20 in the second half.
Griffin Lentsch, Alec Johnson and Brandon Phelps were the main contributors on offense, but Forest Lake is trying to find a way to win without Brad Kopp, who is still out with an ankle injury.
Before heading to Cottage Grove, the boys were in St. Paul on Tuesday for a game against No. 3 ranked Cretin-Derham Hall.
While Cretin quickly took a first-half lead, the Rangers kept the score within range, and at times appeared to be on the brink of controlling the momentum.
Those appearances would end abruptly, as the Raiders were just too fast and athletic.
Cretin closed the first 18 minutes with a flurry of points off turnovers, and Forest Lake would head to locker room down 37-20.
“We did not have an answer for (Michael) Floyd,” Cremisino shared, after the highly touted senior dropped in 34 points during the 71-55 Cretin victory.
“We did not take care of the ball and gave them too many baskets in transition. I think we will give them a better game the next time we see them.”
Lentsch and Ryan Brown each had 13 points, with Pheps contributing eight.
“Confidence is a little down,” Cremisino added. “We need some shots to fall, and some breaks to go our way.”
Monday’s Loss
Shots didn’t fall, and breaks didn’t go their way, as Forest Lake lost to Armstrong on Monday night, 61-45.
Forest Lake (10-7, 3-5) could only manage 17 points in the first half and has now dropped three straight.
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