Halftime update

At halftime, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team has a 22-20 lead over Paynesville Area.

Game updates at Eden Valley

A tough start has the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team in a double-digit hole in the first half at Eden Valley-Watkins. With 11 minutes to go, the Eagles hold an 18-7 lead. Seconds later, they expanded that to 21-7 on a three-pointer.

With 9:15 left, Taylor Pieper scored under the basket.

Update: abysmal, flat-footed interior defense by the Jaguars has contributed to the Eagles forging a 36-21 halftime lead.

With 8:48 left in the game, the Eagles have a 49-34 lead.

With 1:36 left in the game, the Eagles have a 60-48 lead. Final: EV-W 63, B-B-E 50. The Eagles improve to 2-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference and 3-4 overall.

Here's action from the first half of the Hancock game on Tuesday night:


The wrestling team was in Minneota tonight.

Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on January 8:
Holdingford 89, Royalton 44
Kimball Area 92, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 63
Paynesville Area 73, Maple Lake 39

Area boys' basketball scores on January 8:
Melrose Area 64, Sauk Centre 49
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 91, BOLD 35
Border West 71, Parkers Prairie 66
Hancock 76, Battle Lake 44
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 66, Ashby 38
Underwood 83, Rothsay 60
Dawson-Boyd 92, Canby 44
Alexandria 94, Fergus Falls 61
Willmar 70, Becker 62
New York Mills 62, Browerville 52
Minnewaska Area 51, West Central Area 40
Montevideo 84, MACCRAY 34

Girls' basketball Jaguars knock down Royalton!

What an incredible road win!

In what was by far the biggest Central Minnesota Conference road win in years, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team upended Royalton tonight 58-53 to stay unbeaten in the league. The Royals fall to 4-6 overall and 3-1 in the CMC. Last season, Royalton went 28-1 with a loss in the Section 6AA championship game to Sauk Centre. In the CMC, they were a perfect 14-0.

The Jaguars fought tooth and nail through a difficult first half and trailed 32-29 at halftime.

Trailing 47-44 with under 7 minutes left, Kacey Fischer earned a three-point play to knot it up at 47-all.

Going inside of 4 minutes left, the Jaguars fell behind 49-47. With 2:30 left, Royalton's bench was hit with a technical foul. Kacey Fischer proceeded to make both technical free throws to force a 49-49 tie.

Incredible, lights-out defense down the stretch limited the Royals to just 4 points the rest of the way. The Jaguars led 58-51 in the final 30 seconds before Royalton's freshman sensation Chloe Reedy connected on 2 free throws with 2.5 seconds left. That was all she wrote.

More to come later. I have a lot of notes to comb through!

Let's back up briefly to earlier this evening with the boys' basketball game against Hancock. The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team hosted the Owls in a key Section 6A game. Down 30-21 at halftime, the Jaguars played valiantly against a super athletic Hancock team. Cold shooting from the floor and at the line was costly in a double-digit loss by a score of 66-53.

Hancock shot 44 percent from the floor, while the Jaguars made just 29 percent of their field goals. B-B-E was an abysmal 9-for-24 at the free throw line.

Here's the JV Jaguars in action against Hancock...with the game-winning shot featured:


Reid Dickhoff, a 5'10 guard, is the lone junior on the team. He scored with 7.1 seconds left and made a free throw to boot. JV game final score: B-B-E 54, Hancock 51.

I have to attack sports writing. Deadline is screaming at me; the printing press runs at 6 a.m.!

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on January 6:
Eden Valley-Watkins 56, Maple Lake 21
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 59, Paynesville Area 40
Kimball Area 59, Holdingford 47

GAME NIGHT! Home and away

The girls' basketball team is in Royalton, while the boys' basketball team is hosting Hancock. The JV boys' basketball team defeated the Owls 54-51 after Reid Dickhoff earned a three-point play with 7 seconds to go in regulation. The junior scored on the left block to break a 51-51 tie. The varsity boys' game should tip off at 7 p.m.

Halftime in Royalton: Royals 32, Jaguars 29.

Girls' basketball overpowers Maple Lake in strong second half (VIDEOS)

A 39-point outburst in the second half paved the way for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team to earning a 65-39 win against visiting Maple Lake tonight. The Jaguars launched a total of 89 field goals in the game. Their final shooting percentage was 28. Mya Worms led the charge with 14 points.

B-B-E was coming off of a 9-day layoff, with their last game coming on Saturday, December 27 in Sartell. The rust was a mighty obstacle to overcome in the first half, and the Jaguars missed all 9 three-point attempts in the first 18 minutes.

The sledding gets "100 times" tougher, as the Jaguars now prepare for a road trip to Royalton. There's no time to rest, as this road trip takes place tomorrow. The Royals, defending CMC champions, are 4-5 overall (3-0 CMC).

Here's a video featuring the National Anthem plus starter introductions and the opening tip-off:


The opening minutes of the game brought a mighty struggle as the Jaguars took time to find their shot. Through 5 1/2 minutes of play, the Irish led 9-2, and B-B-E's only points were from Kacey Fischer's field goal at the 15:53 mark.

Here's action from the first half tonight:


Coming tomorrow: the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team hosts Hancock in a key Section 6A game. The Owls are 5-2 overall and currently ranked No. 7 in Section 6A. The Jaguars are ranked No. 13. Overall, Section 6A includes 23 teams.

I've been slowly getting this winter sports photo album caught up: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/B-B-E-Winter-Sports-25-26.

GAME NIGHT! The Irish are in town

A JV and varsity night is underway on the home floor for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team, who is facing Maple Lake. The JV Jaguars held a 26-15 lead at halftime and ended up winning in a blowout. I didn't write down the final score. It was by at least 30 points.

The varsity Irish team holds a 1-6 overall record; they are 0-2 in the Central Minnesota Conference. Maple Lake's lone win was by a 48-46 score in Maple Lake on December 5 against St. John's Prep.

The varsity game should get going at 7:10 p.m.

Update: with 8:23 left in the first half, the Jaguars took their first lead of the game with Kamie Fischer scoring in the paint. This gave B-B-E a 12-11 lead.

Halftime: B-B-E 26, Maple Lake 16. The Jaguars had a nice flurry of action in the last 2 minutes to expand a 20-15 lead to the 10-point halftime margin.

Live music begins at Lincoln's Seafood and Steakhouse (VIDEOS*)

Lincoln's in Brooten featured their first live music performance since the bar and restaurant re-opened for the first time since 2017.

On Saturday, December 27, the Tanner Stark Band performed at the Main Theater stage at Lincoln's. Although the foggy weather made for poor travel conditions, those who were fortunate enough to attend the concert had a great time.

Here's a link you can click through to watch a video of the Tanner Stark Band performing that night in Brooten: TannerStarkBandLincolns.

Coming tonight: the Belgrade VFW hosts a pork chop and steak fry. They serve from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and the event also features a meat raffle. I hope to see you there!

And now it's Sunday after church...
Last night, during and after I attended the VFW pork chop/steak fry in Belgrade, I watched the Valley City State University women's basketball team in a home game against the University of Providence of Montana. B-B-E's Tiyana Schwinghammer, a junior, is a current VCSU starter. In what was a low-scoring game through the middle of the third quarter, the Vikings battled back from down 16 points in the first half. They trailed 35-27 at halftime. With just over 3 minutes left in the third quarter, a steal and breakaway layup by Schwinghammer forced the game's first tie at 36-36. The Vikings ultimately lost 67-65. With 8 seconds to go, Schwinghammer knocked down a downtown three-pointer under pressure to force a 65-65 tie. The Argos then scored at the buzzer on a point-blank shot under the basket to erase a possible overtime session. The Providence player released her shot inside the right block with 1.3 seconds on the clock.

Here's the Trinity Lutheran choir in Brooten performing this morning at worship:


The last portion of Christmas-related coverage for 2025 will be published in the January 8 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Jaguars fifth at home invitational (VIDEO)

Noah Jensen's championship finish at 114 pounds helped lead the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team to earn 5th place tonight at their home invitational. A total of 10 teams plus B-B-E were in attendance. B-B-E had 106 team points, which put them ahead of Pipestone Area, who finished 6th with 78.5 points. In fourth was Osakis with 123 points. Watertown-Mayer/Mayer-Lutheran won the team title with 254 points.

In the 114-pound finals, Jensen won by fall (1:17) against WM/ML's Blake Brose.

At 133 pounds, Jude Oeltjenbruns had a strong finish to his night by earning a pin (1:06) in the fifth-place match against Sibley East's Alex Thomes.

At 139 pounds, Noah DeRoo took second place.

At 145 pounds, Jace Mueller took second place.

At 160, Aiden Mueller finished in third place with a thrilling win by an 11-10 decision in his final match of the night. His opponent was senior Jacob Hidalgo of Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville. In the opening seconds of the second period, Aiden fell behind 7-1. In the closing seconds of that period, he pulled in front by an 8-7 score with 4 near-fall points.

Here's a video featuring a large portion of Aiden Mueller's final match of the night:


Next: the wrestling team travels to Minneota for a triangular next Thursday, January 8. The third team included is Canby.

And a quick update on today's Highway 71 car crash...the vehicles were from out of our area. The accident claimed at least one life. I do not have confirmation on whether or not a second person died. It appears that it was a head-on type crash right at the gentle curve of Highway 71 located 3 miles south of Elrosa.

Additional updates and video will be added to this blog post on Saturday morning.

Area boys' basketball scores on January 2:
Braham 74, Upsala 66
Ashby 84, Floodwood 29
Park Christian 64, Rothsay 42
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 73, Paynesville Area 71

Area girls' basketball scores on January 2:
Henning 75, Ortonville 25
Braham 68, Upsala 34
K-M-S 69, Paynesville Area 26
Sauk Centre 71, Holdingford 34
Aitkin 53, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 44

Jaguar Invitational is today

To kick off 2026, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa high school will host the Jaguar Invitational today, Friday, January 2 at 2:30 p.m. Teams invited include Watertown-Mayer, Sibley East, Red Rock Central, Pipestone Area, Ottertail Central, Osakis, Marshall, Milaca, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville and Eden Valley-Watkins.

My wrestling blogging was interrupted this evening with word of a serious accident on Highway 71 right north of the County Road 175 intersection. I know that Kurt and Michelle Herickhoff and kids are all okay. None of them were involved in the crash. It appears that it was a violent, head-on crash. Not good.

The finals tonight will get going around 7:30 p.m. Jace Mueller will go for 1st place at 145, Noah DeRoo will go for 1st at 139.

UPDATES:

At 114, Noah Jensen took first place with a pin in the finals.

Happy New Year! (VIDEO)

Happy New Year from the sports department of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Part of my family enjoyed staying at the Holiday Inn in Alexandria on New Year's Eve with well over a dozen other B-B-E area families. (We're still there.)

Here's the last seconds of the countdown at midnight in Alexandria:


Through the short video, basically everyone shown are B-B-E families. It made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening as the year of 2025 came to a conclusion.

With PayPal, I created a convenient payment link for out-of-area subscriptions. The link is: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/JULR2NCJ75HX4. Out-of-area subscriptions currently cost $37 a year. This includes all subscribers who do not live in these counties of central Minnesota: Pope, Swift, Kandiyohi and Stearns. If you're a new subscriber, you'll have to email me your address to get yourself added: lifeinbonanzavalley@gmail.com.

I'm not sure how much worshiping you were able to participate in over the Christmas holiday season. Hopefully you got a fair amount! I've added video from Trinity Lutheran church in Brooten to the newspaper website. This video was recorded on Christmas Eve last week: TrinityBrootenChristmasEve.