Woodbury will begin its Suburban East Conference title defense on Friday, squaring off against Forest Lake in a rematch of last season's final regular season game.
The No. 9-4A Royals go into this week without a win after falling to No. 10-4A Lakeville North 79-64 on Dec. 7 and No. 5-4A Wayzata 88-64 on Dec. 9. However, Woodbury (0-2) has plenty of talent on its roster, and with a perfect week, the Royals would be back above .500 and start conference play in the win column.
Senior guard Michael Jones leads Woodbury with 32 points per game. While that number may come down a bit when the games start piling up, the Davidson commit averaged 25.2 points last season and is a threat to score at any time.
A perfect start to the season and conference play would be huge for Forest Lake (4-0), but slowing down Jones is proving to be a difficult task this season. However, the Rangers will have had a week to prepare for the Royals, and the proper game plan could result in some revenge for the two losses to Woodbury last season.
Manny Jingco played for Stillwater last season, but the senior guard has slotted seamlessly into the Rangers' lineup and leads the team in scoring with 23 points per game. A big game from Jingco could be the extra bit of firepower that Forest Lake needs to knock off a their conference rival.