ANOKA 58, FOREST LAKE 43

Anoka scored 27 unanswered points at the start of the second half to beat 7AAAA rival Forest Lake at home on Thursday night. FL did not score the first 12:34 of the second half in a drought of biblical proportions. As a result, the Rangers saw a 33-26 half time lead evaporate to a deficit of 53-33.  If you add in the tail end of the first half, it was 31 possessions of bone dry nothing. Part of the problem was off balance shooting, an epidemic throughout the state from what I have noticed. There were many possessions that never had a shot, that was because the FL offense tried to drive into traffic (i.e. three defenders) with dire results. The turnover count in the second half was 15 for FL. The Rangers at the break was sitting at 94 pp100. By the end of the next 18 minutes the pp100 had plummeted to 58 pp100 for the game. Translated, the Ranger second half pp100 was below freezing at 26.3 pp100. Anoka for the night checked in at 80.5 pp100.

Anoka owes much of their success in this game to the infusion of energy from the bench. Their reserves outscored their starters 34-24. The chief igniter was 5-5 junior point guard Sammantha Mucangi, who had 12 points, a 150 pp100 and a 29 score in the 31 Club, the best of the night. It was her 3 near the 14:00 mark of the second half that put Anoka up for good at 35-33. She also momentarily gave the Tornadoes a lead in the second half with another 3 on a long rebound 26-25. That was the last time Anoka would score—four minutes worth left in the first half.  She also led Anoka with 8 d stops and was had a game high 6/10 on distributions. For these reasons she is the TRENCH PLAYER of the game. Freshman Madlin Freking, also off the Tornado bench, led all scorers with 15 points.

The Tornadoes had a +11 rebound advantage, and made eight 3s to five. FL was the beneficiary of 24 free throw attempts, but they did not leverage that to their advantage with only a 58% conversion rate. Anoka attempted 16 but was even colder at the line at 37.5%.

Forest Lake is searching for its first win in the Dave Ostercamp era. Both Ranger losses have come to 7AAAA rivals from the Northwest Suburban conference. He replaced long time coach Jen Wagner this season. Anoka is 3-1 to start the year.