Stillwater gets its revenge and then some

Last fall, Stillwater coach Willie Taylor said, "We're not going to lose 2 games this year." He was referred to last year, when his team lost 2 games and finished 2nd in the state. The Ponies have too tough a schedule for that he said. "We play Park Center, Farmington, Wayzata, Hopkins." He didn't mention White Bear Lake. But, sure enough, his arch-rivals from the Suburban East Conference took him down last month, 69-55, as his Ponies shot 18-of-47 from the field.

Well, tonight they shot 20-of-48. Oh, and that was the first half, which ended with Stillwater leading 50-6. That is not a typo, people. 50-6. White Bear was 2-for-12 with 19 turnovers.

So, now Stillwater is 16-4 and, well, that's not 18-2 but it's not bad. Now, it's also true that the Hopkins game got snowed out. So, coach Taylor was right. They're not gonna lose 2 games this year. They're not that good. But, after dropping into the lower reaches of the top 10, they're back up to #5 in the rankings. If they seeded the state according to the rankings, they'd draw Chaska. But, OK, they're #10 in the QRF and if they seeded the state by QRF then Stillwater would be drawing somebody like Hopkins, Park Center or Farmington. Still, I would pay money to see any of those games.

But, anyway, back to tonight, it's hard to really evaluate Stillwater in such a ridiculously easy win. They shot 30-for-74 and just 7-for-26 3s. So, no, that's not so impressive, really. But, they won all the energy categories--22 offensive rebounds to one, 22-1, and the scored 21 2nd chance points to just 3 for White Bear. And, they forced 30 turnovers and scored 32 points off of those, while giving up just 8 points off turnovers.

Liza Karlen led Stillwater in everything, scoring 28 on 12-of-20 shooting, including 4-of-6 3s, which means that her teammates made 2-of-21 3s. She also had 17 rebounds, 8 on the offensive board. Alexis Pratt was her energetic self and scored 13 points, but needed 15 shots to do it. But she also had 5 assists and just one turnover. The other starters, Amber Scalia, Gionna Carr and Grace Cote shot 8-of-20 with 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 11 steals and just 3 turnovers.

It is also hard to judge White Bear from this game. They were terrible. 30 turnovers, only 25FG attempts. Their ball had grease all over it. But, they're still around .500, they're playing a bunch of kids, and they beat Stillwater once. You can't take that back. They're still #3 in the section according to QRF, which means they would play St. Paul Central and then maybe East Ridge and then maybe Stillwater again. But, I'm pretty sure that White Bear coach Jeremy Post would be happy not to see the Ponies again until then.