No. 4-ranked White Bear Lake doesn't have a roster littered with the experience one would expect from a team with only one loss.

Only three seniors, Rachel Degardner, Jordyn Foley and Beth Lastovich are penciled in every night.

Those three, along with the responsibilities of being leaders, have to balance the selfishness of garnering the minutes that they want for the greater good of the team.

"It's what it's all about," Foley said.

Youth has not been an excuse from the start, and Bears' coach Jeremy Post will be the first one to insist it won't be. He relies on his three seniors to lead the way.

"They have been great," Post said. "When we are playing well you know they have a big part in that, but they are also there to get us going when we need it."

White Bear Lake has suffered just one hiccup, a 53-46 loss to Forest Lake on Jan. 21. The leadership from Degardner, Foley and Lastovich has been invaluable.

White Bear Lake doesn't have the prolific scorer, but the senior class has focused on defense, an attitude that has filtered down through the rest of the roster.

"When things are not going well, that is one thing that you can fall back on," Degardner said. "We put a lot of effort on defense."

It showed in the Bears 53-49 victory against No. 9 Park of Cottage Grove on Thursday at White Bear Lake High School.

It was the 10th time White Bear Lake has held an opponent to less than 50 points. The Bears were on a stretch of three straight halves of allowing less than 20 until the Wolfpack got hot in the second half with 33.

"We've played well on defense all year," Post said. "We are young, but we are athletic. We try to get layups, but we also try not to give up layups. It pretty simple but hard work and effort on defense should put you in a good position."

Park of Cottage Grove's Sydney Lamberty almost shot the Wolfpack back in it with 25 points, including 15 in the second half.

White Bear Lake lead by as many as 10 points with less than five minutes to play, but Lamberty hit a few big buckets to make it interesting.

But not so interesting for the Bears' three seniors.

"I knew we were still going to win," Lastovich said. "We've been through these games before and felt good about it."

White Bear Lake is 18-1 overall and 10-1 in the Suburban East Conference while the Wolfpack drop to 13-5 and 9-2 in the conference.

The Bears control their own destiny in claiming another conference title with seven games left in the regular season, all against Suburban East teams.

"It has been a blast this year," Degardner said. "Hopefully we can keep it going."