Woodbury girls basketball: Bears win 11th straight over Royals

Despite perhaps not having as dominant of a team as it has had in the past few years, the White Bear Lake Bears continued to be a thorn in the side of the Woodbury girls basketball team last week.

A Suburban East Conference and section rival, White Bear Lake came to Woodbury on Tuesday, Jan. 8, and left with a 48-39 win. It was the 11th straight time White Bear Lake has defeated Woodbury. The last time the Royals beat the Bears was on Feb. 17, 2009. White Bear Lake has also ended Woodbury’s season the last four years in the Section 4AAA playoffs.

In the most recent matchup, Woodbury (7-5; 4-3 SEC) struggled to get its offense going. White Bear Lake led 30-21 at the half and held on for the 9-point win. Senior Kristina White and junior Kalley Hakes combined for 27 of the Royals’ 39 points. White scored a game-high 17 points, Hakes had 10 points. Rachel Lauer led the Bears (6-9; 5-2 SEC) with 13 points.

The Royals also fell 60-54 at Forest Lake on Friday to go 0-2 on the week.

Forest Lake (11-3; 4-3 SEC) took a 38-31 halftime advantage and, though Woodbury outscored the Rangers 23-22 in the second half, they kept the Royals at bay to secure the win. Senior forward Courtney Schiffler led Woodbury in scoring in the game with 15 points. White and eighth grader Cecile Kieger each scored 13 points.

Forest Lake junior forward Bailey Norby led the Rangers with a game-high 18 points. Norby leads the conference in scoring at 19.9 points per game.

Woodbury traveled to Minneapolis Southwest on Monday and played host to Hastings (3-10; 0-7 SEC) on Tuesday, after the Bulletin went to press. Next, rival Park (10-4; 5-2 SEC) comes to Woodbury High School on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Tip-off is set for 7:15 p.m.

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