Woodbury girls' winning ways

• Jessica Thone

Royals guard Jessica Thone helped lead Woodbury to two wins last week. She was just seven points shy of 1,000 for her career heading into Tuesday. Staff photo by Tom Carothers

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It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Woodbury girls basketball.

Especially when your team can rebound from a tough loss to one of the state’s top teams and get back to work in the Suburban East conference.

After they were trounced by Robbinsdale Armstrong Jan. 13, the Royals dusted themselves off and won by wide margins against Hastings an Roseville last week.

In the Tuesday, Jan. 20 win on the road against Hastings, Woodbury started hot and remained hot, with a 30-18 lead after the first half, and a 61-42 win.

Mary Kroening led all scorers with 14 points in a night when coach Dave Preller said his team played well against Hastings zone defense.

“After solving their zone defense, we played well,” Preller said. “Not too

much trouble except for Hastings inside kids who scored well against us.”

But Preller would save the real praise for the effort the Royals turned out Friday in a 63-45 win against Roseville, one of the better teams in the Suburban East Conference.

“We were ready to play and got out to a very good

start,” Preller said. “Something we've stressed, but haven't accomplished much this season; it was good to see.”

The Royals battled against a much taller team in Roseville, but refused to surrender on the boards.

Four Royals scored in double figures as Jess Thone led all scorers with 16 points in the victory. The Royals (12-2 overall) remained undefeated in conference play heading into their Tuesday matchup with Park. The game was completed after press time.

Thone watch

Woodbury Royals senior guard Jess Thone was just seven points shy of scoring 1,000 for her career heading into Tuesday’s game against Park.

Tags: sports, woodbury, girls, basketball, thone, kroening, preller