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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
There will be no dancing at this week’s state tournament for the boys basketball team, as Forest Lake fell to Cambridge-Isanti on Wednesday night, 52-43.
“Wow. Tough way to end a great season,” Forest Lake head coach Dan Cremisino said. “To get so close and not finish it off hurts.”
For most of the first half of the Class 4A, Section 7 title game, the top-seeded Rangers were in complete control. They were up 7-0 to start the game, and even after the Bluejackets shrunk the lead to 9-8, Forest Lake responded with another run.
With the help of an old-fashioned three-point play by Griffin Lentsch, and a three-point basket by Ryan Brown, the Rangers surged ahead to a 10-point lead near the eight-minute mark. That differential would turn into a 26-16 halftime score.
GOING UP, COMING DOWN: Griffin Lentsch and the rest of the Forest Lake basketball team jumped on Cambridge early, but faltered late, getting outscored 36-17 in the second half.
Both teams came into Elk River’s packed gymnasium averaging approximately 65 points per game, making the first 18 minutes an unusually low occurrence. But in the second half, Braden Johnson of Cambridge started dropping in three-point shots like change in a tip jar, while Forest Lake soon found itself in a season-ending, 5-for-24 slump.
“The lead at half probably should have been larger, and when they made a run at us in the second half we did not respond well,” Cremisino admitted. “We went cold, got out of our offense and went away from our game plan.”
Brad Kopp drained a jumper to give the Rangers a 12-point cushion, but then the night began to get chilly. At least for one squad.
Christian Metz and Sam Soderman got to the hoop for the Bluejackets, and when the 5’9” Johnson knocked down his second three-pointer, the score was quickly 30-23.
Johnson went on to hit five straight from beyond the arc — on his way to a game-high 26 points — and essentially shot his team into the state tournament.
“I think we got a couple of easy layups and the threes started to go down. We got a lot more confident in ourselves and we knew we could take over the game,” Johnson said. “We were setting some back screens and I was getting a little more open in the second half and it worked out good.”
Even with Johnson’s heroics, Forest Lake clung to the lead until 5:24 remained in the season, when Zak Mathson tied it up at 36.
The Rangers’ Zach Riedeman hit a pair of free throws to make it a two-point game, but Mathson matched him at the line and Johnson hit another three. That final trifecta by Johnson put the Bluejackets up 41-38, giving them their first lead of the night with 3:38 showing on the clock.
“I thought we just stood around the whole first half against their 1-3-1 zone. I wasn’t happy with that at all,” Cambridge head coach Mike McDonald said. “In the second half we got a little more movement, found people a little bit, found Braden Johnson, and Braden Johnson made every tough shot down the stretch.”
“The extended zone we used was played just about to perfection for most of the game,” Cremisino shared. “I give credit to Cambridge for hanging tough and hitting big shots down the stretch and making their free throws to finish us off.”
Whereas Forest Lake ended the season with a 19-10 record after the loss in the Section 7AAAA final, the Bluejackets’ win improved their record to 19-10, but they will play on.
“They are a good team and they played better than us the last five minutes,” Cremisino said. “We had great fan support and it was an exciting high school basketball game. We feel very good about winning 19 games and being the last team standing in the SEC.
“I see no reason why we won’t keep getting better. I already can’t wait for next year.”
Box Score
Cambridge-Isanti 16 36 — 52
Forest Lake 26 17 — 43
Cambridge — Z. Mathson 8, C. Mathson 12, Metz 8, Johnson 26, Soderman 5, Dunbar 2.
Forest Lake — Lentsch 9, Brown 11, Phelps 6, Cremisino 2, Kopp 7, Riedeman 6, Person 2.
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