Jaguars girls basketball battles hard, leaves it all on the court against #5-ranked Eden Valley-Watkins, final score 58-47 loss to the Eagles

A photo from the Sauk Centre game on December 22...The Jaguars turned up the defensive intensity in the second half of last night's loss to Eden Valley-Watkins.

The Jaguars fall to 8-4 overall and 4-1 in the CMC, while the Eagles improved to 5-0 in the conference and 14-1 overall.

It was a battle. The Jaguars fell into an early deep hole, 29-9 after 8:00 gone on the clock, then trailed 34-22 at halftime. They cut the deficit to as few as six points before the Eagles pulled away at the end. The Jaguars fought until the final buzzer. This was an excellent game in which the Jaguars saw what they were made of. If they bottled up what they did in the second half of this game, they will be very hard to beat down the season stretch.

The Eagles' star guard Hannah Linz finished with 31 points, including four 3-pointers. The Jaguars were led by Emily Roelike, who totaled 23 points, including four three-pointers. Roelike, a senior fourth-year varsity player, was held to five points in the first half before exploding for a double-figure second period.

Today, Saturday, the Jaguars wrestling team is competing at the Paynesville Invitational. It started at 9am and will wrap up most likely between 3 and 5pm. Other teams at the tournament besides the Jaguars and the host Bulldogs are Class AAA Grand Rapids, Holdingford, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, and Class AAA Sartell.

Fresh update from an e-mail I received from Dave McClurg, Smooth Magic 107's sports broadcaster. It reads as follows.

1. The BBE Wrestling match at Osakis will be back on the KMGK broadcast schedule for this coming Thursday, January 22nd. Our broadcast will start around 4:45 Thursday afternoon from Osakis High School, then KMGK will join the Gopher Basketball game versus Purdue, already in progress.
2. I recorded a "Coaches' Roundup" interview with Jaguars' Girls Basketball Coach Hagen earlier this afternoon, for the program tomorrow morning. The interview will be the first of three to air during tomorrow's show. I would guess that Greg's interview will start around 7:30. I anticipate having an interview with wrestling Coach Vos two weekends from now (January 31st), then have boys basketball Coach Montbriand back on for the February 7th "Coaches' Roundup" program.

Thanks Dave! I hope the weather straightens out for all of us real soon.

Scheduling notes for next week: On Tuesday night, varsity action resumes for the Jaguars when the boys basketball team hosts Holdingford in a CMC game. That game will also be aired on "The Train 106.5 FM"...stay tuned for more on that.

That same night, the Jaguars girls basketball team travels to Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (4-8) for a non-conference game. The Fighting Saints just snapped a six-game losing streak last night when they knocked off Minneota on the road in a 51-50 thriller. The Vikings, who like K-M-S are in the Camden Conference, entered that game with a 7-2 record.

Also next Tuesday, the Jaguars wrestling team travels to Holdingford for a Central Minnesota Conference dual.

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