East Ridge boys basketball: Raptors take down Stillwater 68-55

The East Ridge boys basketball team made swift work of Suburban East Conference power Stillwater with a 68-55 win over the Ponies on Tuesday, Jan. 18, at East Ridge High School.

In the game, East Ridge (9-4; 3-3 SEC) built on its 32-29 halftime lead outscoring visiting Stillwater 36-26 in the second half en route to the 13-point win over the Ponies (7-5; 3-3 SEC).

Junior guard Justin Pahl led the way for the Raptors in the win with a game-high 20 points. It was Pahl’s third-straight game of 20 or more points. He scored 21 points against Hastings and Cretin-Derham Hall previously. Additionally, against Stillwater, senior forward Adam Schwartz netted 13 points and senior guard John Hieptas scored 12 points. Jake Malwitz was the only Stillwater player in double figures in the game with 10 points.

On the year, Pahl — a transfer student from Mahtomedi who moved to Woodbury — leads the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game.

Hietpas is second in scoring for the Raptors at 12.6 points per game, followed by Schwartz at 9.8 points per game.

Next, East Ridge travels to Forest Lake on Friday, Jan. 21, to take on the Rangers (9-4; 3-3 SEC) before going to White Bear Lake (7-4; 4-2 SEC) on Tuesday, Jan. 25, and playing host to rival Woodbury, for the first time this season, on Friday, Jan. 28, at “The Perch.”

Woodbury (4-7; 3-3 SEC) beat the Raptors in both meetings last season.

Game times are all 7:15 p.m.

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