Winter Week 4: Winter Rears its Ugly Head Across the Area, Lady Jaguars Basketball Lose True Heartbreaker at Rockford

Mother Nature wreaked havoc on central Minnesota today with a nasty combination of steady rain and 30-32 degree weather starting this morning and continuing into the afternoon
hours. B-B-E closed school and sent the kids home at 1:30 today. All after-school activities, including any practices, are also cancelled/postponed.

The Kimball wrestling or Rockford boys basketball events were postponed. The wrestlers had a big Quadrangular scheduled for tonight, including Trinity Lutheran School, Meadow Creek Christian/River Academy, and Kimball. They are scheduled to host the Jaguar Invite on January 5 at the high school.

Friday night December 22 the Lady Jaguars will host Kimball at the elementary school, looking to even their conference record at 1-1.

Lady Jaguars Drop Nail-Biting loss at Rockford 74-72

Tuesday night it was a reversal of fortunes with the Lady Jaguars basketball team, as the Varsity squad put in an exemplary effort while bringing their game to a proper level to compete for a Central Minnesota Conference championship. At Rockford, a place they have never done well, the Lady Jaguars played to a 32-32 halftime tie with the Rockets. They built a nine-point lead going into the final minutes of the game, only to give up an 11-0 run to experience a crushing, heartbreaking loss on a last-second layup, losing 74-72. The 72 points put up by the Lady Jaguars is a season-high, topping the 60 points they put up against Paynesville. It was the closest loss to Rockford in many seasons, while they have been a dominant team in the CMC since 2001-2002. The Rockets move to 2-0 in the CMC and 4-2 overall.

The last Lady Jaguar win over Rockford was on January 13, 2000. The Rockets went on to finish as Section 5AA runners-up in 2002, 2003, and 2004, finally knocking out New London-Spicer in 2005 to go to "State". The Lady Jaguars' closest loss to the Rockets other than this week since 2001 was a 50-41 loss at the elementary school a year ago.

In other Central Minnesota Conference girls basketball games, Eden Valley-Watkins's sophomore standout Hannah Linz dumped in 28 points in a game at Maple Lake (0-2 CMC, 4-4) where the Eagles (1-0 CMC, 3-2) upended the Irish 69-57. Pierz hosted Holdingford and won their CMC opener while remaining undefeated on the season at 6-0. The Pioneers (6-0) led 30-14 at halftime over the Huskers (0-1 CMC, 2-3).

The Jaguar wrestling team, fresh off a big loss to New London-Spicer, possibly the area's strongest wrestling team, will travel to Kimball on Thursday, December 21, to face the host Cubs in Central Minnesota Conference action, as well as Meadow Creek Christian/River Academy. MCC/RA is a private school from Andover who is also in Section 5A, being bounced from the team section playoffs last season 35-31 by our Jaguars. Both duals are big matchups, as they both count towards playoff seedings next February.

Action is slated to begin at the Kimball Area High School at 5:00pm. The Jaguars most likely will wrestle the second and third matches of the night.

In boys basketball action tonight involving Central Minnesota Conference teams, the Rockford Rockets were nipped at the buzzer at Milaca, as a Wolves' guard hit a turnaround jumper to hand the Rockets (4-1) their first loss of the season. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted picked up their first win of the season after an 0-3 start by defeating a Sub-Section 5AA-20 team, St.Cloud Cathedral (2-2) 80-56. Holdingford (6-1) pounded on Royalton (2-5) as guests for the Royals 72-44. It was the Huskers' second win of the season over a bad Royals team (both non-conference wins). Pierz traveled to Albany and beat a winless Huskies team 61-44 to even their record at 1-1 overall.

In the only CMC boys basketball game so far this season, Eden Valley-Watkins hosted Maple Lake and overcame 11 three-pointers by the Irish to win 68-64. The Eagles are 4-0 overall, while the Irish fell to 3-5 overall.