Boys basketball: Hastings beats Woodbury, 67-42

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Heading into a very challenging three-game stretch on the schedule, Hastings boys basketball coach Chad Feikema was optimistic. He wasn’t necessarily thinking Hastings would beat Forest Lake, Stillwater or Cretin-Derham Hall, but he knew his team had a great chance to learn a lot against three very good teams.

After a bumpy four-game losing streak, Hastings took on Woodbury here Tuesday night and won handily, 67-42. Hastings took a 32-15 halftime lead and didn’t look back.

Hastings had a very balanced attack, with senior Shane Monjeau leading the way for the Raiders. He had 16 points and during the game he scored his 1,000th career point for Hastings. He is now fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list.

Darius Wilkerson (13), Nick Gmiterko (13) and Mike Hill (11) were also in double figures.

Also scoring were Josh Harstad (four), Tony Hammes (three), Ellis Williams (three), Dan Guelle (two), Bryce Gergen (one) and Jake Cox (one).

Hastings is now 8-10 on the season.

Vs CDH

Hastings lost to Cretin-Derham Hall on Friday, 72-54.

“They shot the ball extremely well from the perimeter,” Feikema said. “Even when we were out there contesting them, they were still knocking a lot of things down.”

Cretin is the No. 7-ranked team in Class 4A.

Cretin led 45-22 at halftime. Hastings actually outscored Cretin in the second half, 32-27, but it was too little, too late.

“They have a lot of players who can score,” Feikema said. “We would have needed to catch them on a night where they weren’t shooting well.”

Still, Feikema was encouraged, especially by what he saw in the second half.

“We can play with those teams if we can just play more consistently and with no fear,” he said. “We do things well for a while and we just need to be consistent for the entire 36 minutes.

“We have the things in place that we can play with these teams. We just can’t do those things for a percentage of the time. It has to be the entire game.”

Gmiterko led Hastings in scoring with 16. Hill had 11, Monjeau had 13, Hammes had 4, Williams had 6 and Wilkerson had 4.

Tags: sports, basketball, prep