Junior helps Knights to perfect week
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Lexie Forsell knew it was a big week for the West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls basketball team, and did everything in her power to keep the Knights headed for the state tournament.
”We really want to make states this year,” said the junior point guard. “We’re trying to play as hard as we can. States is important to us. It means so much to us, it’s hard to explain.”
Forsell let everyone know with her playing. She produced some of her best games to lift the Knights to a week they needed desperately to set up an exciting race to the state cutoff for being .500.
Forsell scored 10 points in a 46-36 win over Lawrenceville last Monday, followed it up with a season-high 17 points in a 49-37 win over Ewing on Tuesday, and then closed the week with four points and outstanding defense in a 58-41 win over Princeton High last Friday. With the wins, a season-long three-game winning streak, the Knights evened their record at 7-7 with four games to go before the cutoff.
Lexie Forsell is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”We had to win those three games,” said Knights coach Bob Boyce, whose team beat Nottingham on Tuesday to improve to 8-7. “I told them that. You have to beat the teams that you should beat. Those are three teams we should beat. They did a good job.”
Forsell was called on to score more than usual as the Knights played against Lawrenceville without Erin Egan, who was out with an injury. Losing one of their top scorers could have spelled doom for the Knights, who have struggled all season at the offensive end. Forsell understood the task at hand.
”It hit us that our season wasn’t going the way it should be going,” Forsell said. “We knew we needed to turn things around. People decided to step up. Shots began to drop in the basket. We haven’t been making shots lately.”
In the next game, Forsell was an even bigger part of the offense. She was just doing her part to build the streak.
”I knew we had to win the game,” she said. “I knew I had to take every opportunity I had. I was having a great game, so I kept shooting, and I was actually scoring.”
But scoring is not Forsell’s main job for the Knights. She is supposed to be their primary ball-handler and playmaker and got WW-P North off on the right foot last week.
”Lexie was the catalyst in getting us going,” Boyce said. “She had a monstrous game against Ewing. She dishes off seven or eight assists a game. She averages about seven steals a game. That’s more what we got out of her last week.
”Her confidence is a little better. She still struggles in that regard. I spend a lot of time talking about it. She’s the leader, she’s the point guard. It’s been better this year, certainly in the last week or so.”
Forsell can be a force even without scoring, as she was against PHS. She helped anchor a trapping defense that helped to grow an eight-point halftime lead to 21 by the end of the third quarter.
”It’s all about surprising the other teams,” Forsell said. “We want to get the other team to lose control of the ball. We’ve been doing it a lot. So many people are having steals. It’s good. We’re getting teams to turn the ball over a lot.”
Forsell is a big part of the defense. She is tailor made for the Knights, who mix their presses, traps, zone and man-to-man defenses.
”One of the best defenses we have is the 1-3-1 because she’s in the back of it,” Boyce said. “She can anticipate the pass out of the trap and come pick it off. We used it almost exclusively all week. Whenever we get to the point where we need stops, we go to it.
”She’s very athletic,” he added. “She’s very quick. She can shoot, when she wants to shoot. She can shoot the three-ball or drive. She’s one of my more athletic guards, so she has to be one of our scorers.”
The better the defense, however, the less pressure there is on the offense. Forsell’s confidence is growing at both ends of the floor.
”We’re keeping teams from scoring,” she said. “We have a great defensive team. Our shots don’t always fall. Our offense doesn’t always work out way we want it to, but we find ourselves scoring more these days. I believe we’ve improved a lot.”
Just in time for a big week that keeps Lexie Forsell and the Knights in the chase for a meaningful state tournament berth.

