Despite leading in the first half, turnovers and missed shots fed loss
It was a tough loss to Coon Rapids in the Section 7AAAA championship game for the Forest Lake boys basketball team last Thursday, March 14.
Forest Lake head coach Kyle McDonald knew the Rangers’ section championship game matchup, held at Princeton High School, was going to be tough. Forest Lake had narrowly eclipsed the Cardinals during the team’s only meeting during the regular season, winning by 2 in the late December home game.
“I knew it’d be a very intense game,” McDonald said, referring to both the game and the crowd. “(What) I told these guys is to control your emotions. Just control within the environment — it’s going to be a crazy, crazy game — and I think we did that.”
After several possessions that ended in missed shots by both teams to start the game, senior Owen Waldoch drew first blood with a layup, and the Rangers led the first half most of the way, only giving up the lead a few times. But the game was far from easy. Despite the Rangers having a solid scoring run, the score was close, with the half ending at 40-39.
“I think we found our rhythm first half,” McDonald said. “Having a 1-point lead at the half, I felt pretty good.”
But the Rangers found trouble in the second half. Defensively, they made some key stops with blocked shots, but found themselves struggling with turnovers and more missed shots on offense, giving up the tight lead fast to the Cardinals. In a turnaround from the first half, Coon Rapids set the pace and kept the lead, eventually garnering an 8-point lead over the Rangers.
“That first kind of four or five minutes didn’t do us so well, and we couldn’t really fight back and get back out of the hole,” McDonald said, later adding, “We couldn’t get stops where we needed them in the second half, especially when they got a lead.”
By the final two minutes of the game, the Rangers had closed the gap. Key turnovers and some fouls by the Cardinals had the Rangers at the free-throw line, and the Rangers inched their way back.
But despite some key shots in the final seconds, the Rangers were 3 points shy of the Section 7AAA title, ending the game 62-65.
“It’s tough. Basketball’s just a game of runs, and they made more runs than we did, and that’s why they came up on top,” McDonald said.
Waldoch, who has led the Rangers this season in scoring and earlier this season broke the Forest Lake boys basketball all-time scoring record, ended with a team high of 26 points on the night.
“It’s tough to lose that game, but I know how hard we’ve worked,” Waldoch said, noting, “It came down to the wire, and [we] just turned the ball over a little bit.”
Braeden Turk hit 18 points on the night, while Brennan Sauvageau sunk three 3-pointers.
“Kind of our model this year is we don’t quit. We’ve lost now 11 games by single digits this year, and there’s a lot of times I’m saying ‘Guys, don’t quit.’ … No matter how much time is left on the clock, these guys don’t quit, and I’m proud of them. We just came up a few points short, and it’s tough with the group of seniors we have,” McDonald said.
Waldoch said there were “a lot of emotions” about the game, but he acknowledged the camaraderie the team has, adding, “These are my best friends.”
“I’m more proud of all the work that these guys put in, and it’s just a testament to their mentality and hard work to get to where we want to be,” McDonald said. “Three points short of a section title — I’m very proud of these guys.”
The Rangers ended the season 16-13, 11 of those losses by single digits.
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