Stillwater roars back to defeat Forest Lake 70-57

It was a game of runs, sort of. I mean, there were only 4 of them, 2 on each side. But Stillwater got the last run and the longest and biggest run, 42-18 over the final 13:30 to beat Forest Lake 70-57. Sara Scalia was her usual incredible self, scoring 39 points, including exactly half of the Ponies’ points in that closing run. She shot 13-of-21 for the night, 8-of-14 2s and 5-of-7 3s. Down the stretch she was a perfect 7-for-7 with 4 3s and 3 2s. She also made 5-of-6 throws, and added 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 turnovers. Stillwater led 7-0 and 11-2 early despite making just 3-of-12 shots, while Forest Lake missed their 1st 7 shots and turned it over 4 times. The shooting troubles were not prophetic as the Lakers came back to make 23-of-44 the rest of the way, but the turnovers were. The Rangers turned it over 7 times in the 1st half and 13 in the 2nd, and Stillwater converted those Forest Lake turnovers into 15 points. But that did not prevent Forest Lake from coming back to a 26-25 lead at halftime and 39-28 at 13:30 of the 2nd. Stillwater employed a full court defense most of the way, and stepped up the half court pressure in the 2nd half. Forest Lake was really exposed for the lack of a go-to ballhandler. They tried to dribble through the defense, had difficulty finding upcourt passes to make, and had a hard time controlling the ball on the move. They shot very well when they got into the halfcourt—a 3, and 3 layups to start the 2nd half, and making 6-of-8 shots until the ball stopped dropping. Stillwater made 12-of-18 shots down the stretch, Forest Lake 6-of-14. (Still, that's 12-of-22 shooting in the 2nd half when they nevertheless got torched.) Stillwater had 3 turnovers in the final 13:30, Forest Lake 10. Forest Lake is a finesse team and it just doesn’t get to the FT line—6-of-7 on the night, 3-of-4 in the 2nd half. Stillwater got to the line 26 times and made 19, including 15-of-20 in the 2nd half. 3 Stars Each This game was a perfect set-up for embarrassment all around. We just last week moved Sara Scalia from #9 to #3 in our 2019 player ratings and, now, here I am, watching her in her very next game. It was the perfect opportunity for her to score 4 points. But, no, she dominated the game with her scoring and leadership. She could always shoot but her North Tartan coach Melissa Guebert told us last summer that, suddenly, the mental game came together for her and she went from star to superstar. We were told last night that the mental game didn't just come together, but it was coach Guebert herself who somehow flipped on the light. But Scalia wasn’t the whole story. Forwards Rachel Houle, a 6-0 senior, and Grace Cote, a 5-10 sophomore, played well. They shot just 2-of-11 between them, but grabbed 10 rebounds with no turnovers. Houle is long, tough defender, Cote the more mobile wing, not yet as strong or as tough as she needs to be, but with lots of upside. Alexis Pratt, the freshman guard, struggled much of the way, then broke loose for 10 points down the stretch. It’s pretty obvious she’s going to the rim, she turned it over 5 times, and charged twice. But, in the end, she got to the rim, she got to the line, and got to the 1,000 point milestone on a steal-and-2 at about the 5 minute mark. Abigail Groeneweg, Lindsey Johnson and Maddy Rice are 3 athletic juniors for Forest Lake. Groeneweg is a 6-0 power forward, also a great volleyball player. She puts the ball on the floor and gets to the rim and is also a very tough rebounder. She tends to evade the defense on her drives, however, and after she does that she’s sometimes not in position to shoot it. I’d like to see her take more of a straight line, take some contact and get to the FT line, rather than dipsy-do it. She missed 4 layups down the stretch. Still she’s our #24-rated player in the class of 2019. She has not yet decided whether to play basketball or volleyball or both at the next level. Johnson is a 5-10 guard with a very nice combination of length and quickness. Forest Lake decided to guard Scalia one-to-one with nothing fancy, no unusual help schemes or anything like that. Johnson was the sacrificial lamb. I can’t say she did a good job. Scalia scored 39, after all. But she showed great athleticism, good quickness, good hustle. She also scored 4 FG by attacking the rim with and without the ball. She is our #127 2019. Rice is a 5-9 forward who just joined the starting lineup a couple weeks ago. Her sister Miranda was also a late bloomer who is now a star at Gustavus. She also scored on a couple of dribble drives. She just entered our player rankings last week at #65. Despite the big gap between Johnson and Rice, last night they were somewhat interchangeable but Johnson is a little bit the quicker of the 2 and also an inch longer. Ironically, all 3 are good ball handlers—just not good enough last night, considering that there’s no one of them that is a go-to ball handler, and overall Forest Lake had a lot of trouble with Stillwater’s full court pressure defense. But, once they got into the half court offense, they had some very pretty multi-pass possessions leading to easy baskets off assist passes. Forest Lake assisted on 12 of 24 FG. Johnson had 5. Stillwater assisted on just 3 of 17 FG as Scalia and Pratt create most of their shots on their own. Last night, they created plenty.