Cretin takes a few punches but still tames the Bears

At times is was like ballet. More often it was like boxing. In the end, it was Cretin-Derham Hall that earned a curtain call and a TKO as the Raiders defeated White Bear Lake 51-42 to win the Northstar Girls Hoops Game of the Week in St. Paul. Chan'el Anderson-Manning scored the first Cretin points with a layup just 20 seconds into the game. That was followed quickly by a pair of Frannie Hottinger free throws, an Autam Mendez put-back, and a string of buckets by Hottinger. The first act had only just begun, Hottinger was already in double figures and White Bear Lake was flat on the canvas down 18-2. “I have been talking with the players about some of the things we have been doing and getting away with against different types of teams,” said White Bear Coach Jeremy Post, “and then – bang! – you learn all the lessons at once and you are down 20.”

For Cretin Coach Joe Lynch, those first few minutes went precisely according to plan. “It was a great start, and that's exactly what we need,” he said. “That's how we're built: score early and score often and try to get to the rim.”

White Bear Lake struggled to make baskets for several more minutes, but they eked their way back into it through sheer will and determination. With just over six minutes left in the half, the Bears had cut the lead to nine. Not long afterwards, White Bear's Tessah Anderson took a solid elbow to the face and hit the floor hard. She was only down for a minute or so, but when she got up Anderson was one angry Bear. I'm not sure I have the right words to describe how physical and emotional she was throughout the rest of the game – at least not words I could use in the presence of small children.

Still, Cretin managed to keep their wits about them and handled it all quite well. “We talk about it a lot, about sportsmanship and emotional control,” Lynch said. “That's the Suburban East Conference, though.  Park Cottage Grove plays that way. Roseville plays that way. White Bear plays that way. We have to be able to handle it, both physically and mentally. You can't lose your mental control or you are out of the game.”

“They are as good as we have seen.”

After the break, the Bears mounted a couple of legitimate runs. They started moving the ball and working together and stopped trying to beat Cretin at their own game. Every time the Bears threw a good jab, however, Cretin countered with a solid uppercut. When they needed it most, the Raiders got a spurt of offense – mostly from Hottinger, who always seems to come up big at the biggest moments. She finished with 25 points and a convincing double-double. Hottinger's length and tenacity have been the undoing of several opponents to date. It was no different on this night. “Did she have all of their points?” Post said with a smirk. “We have to figure out a way to control her. I don't know what it is but if we can't figure it out we can't beat them.”

With under seven minutes remaining, sophomore Ella Janicki and junior Anna Sanders knocked down back-to-back threes as White Bear threatened. As it often does, the Bears defensive pressure was causing an opponent to turn the ball over and get flustered. Lynch called a time out for Cretin to settle things down and the Raiders regained control of the game. “I was proud of the way we responded,” Post said. “We fought back. If we could have knocked down a few more threes we maybe could have got all the way back, but we just couldn't quite do it.”

Post threw in the towel with under three minutes left on the clock, clearing his bench in an attempt to save something for Thursday's rivalry game with Mahtomedi. White Bear dropped to 3-1 in conference play, 5-3 overall. All three losses were to top 10 teams. Cretin is a perfect 4-0 in the league, 7-1 overall. This game made a number of things clear: 1. Cretin is very good. 2. Cretin is getting better. 3. Cretin still has a ways to go to be the best.  “They're good, as good as we have seen,” Post said. “I mean, everybody can score, and they've got a kid that you need three people to stop, but you can't really focus on her too much because then they've got great players everywhere else.”

For Lynch, it was another incremental step forward in a journey that began in the basement. “White Bear is a great program. I mean, they are physical and they're tough. We just had to keep grinding away at it,” said Lynch, whose team is adapting to its new role as frontrunner. “It's a growing experience. It's new for us. I'm glad we are in this position, but everybody is going to give us their best every single night and it's something we need to be able to handle. “