Another section Final Four berth for the Jaguars Boys Basketball team, the second in a row, as they defeat Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 57-45

Senior Matt Goodwin sank this driving layup through three defenders early in the second half.


The B-B-E crowd at UM-Morris was huge!

The Jaguars boys basketball team advanced to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship game with a 57-45 win over Wheaton/Herman-Norcross on Saturday afternoon at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

The game was controlled by the Blue and Silver the whole way, although the Warriors had a couple "pushes" to narrow the deficit that the Jaguars had them in the whole game.

An early 10-2 lead was built by the Jaguars, then 10-4, and at the 12:25 mark, Matt Goodwin broke free on the arc to launch the team's first three-pointer for a 13-4 lead.

A three-point play by Brady Koehler brought a 16-6 score with 12:00 left in the first half.

The Warriors hung around for most of the first half, and another shot by Goodwin put the Jaguars on top 28-19 with 6:35 on the clock.

A three-point play by Kevin Kuefler at 3:17, with one of his trademark spin moves in traffic, made it 33-23.

The #4-seeded Warriors scored the final four points before halftime. 33-27 Jaguars.

More notes from both halves of the game will be added later.

The Jaguars will now take on Hillcrest Lutheran Academy next Tuesday night, March 16, at 6:00pm at UM-Morris.

The Hillcrest Lutheran Academy Comets are 21-2 after completely mauling #3-seed Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 70-45 in the other semi-final game yesterday at UMM. The Comets, who won the Little Eight Conference without breaking a sweat (12-0 record, 2nd place was Battle Lake at 8-4), average about 65 points a game and play very fundamentally sound basketball. They are the real deal.

The Jaguars certainly have the stuff to play with them and even defeat them, but it will be all-out war. The Comets' only losses of the year are to Park Christian (72-47 on Dec. 19) and to Oak Grove Lutheran of Fargo (69-61 on Feb. 6).

This is what's scary: On March 5, just a little over one week ago, the Comets hosted C-G-B and managed to get past the Wolverines 67-58 in a hard-fought battle.

Much more information on the HLA Comets will be posted later today.

Kuefler hits another tip-in bucket to start the scoring for the Jaguars in the second half.


Up in Sub-Section 6A-North, a shocking upset took place between #6 seed Norman County West and #2 seed Park Christian, as the heavily favored and state-ranked (#9 Class A) Falcons went down in flames at Memorial Auditorium, Concordia College, by a 54-51 margin. Park Christian shot only 9-of-17 from the free throw line! Ouch.

NCW (14-14) takes on top-seeded, #4 state-ranked Ada-Borup (26-1) next Tuesday night at 6:30pm at Concordia College. The A-B Cougars defeated #4-seed Norman County East (18-9) 57-47 in the other semi-final last night. A-B led NCE 18-6 in the first half and hung on while NCE made a second-half charge and whittled the deficit to a 50-45 game with 6:31 left.

To read more about the NCW-Park Christian game, click here: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/272093/

You can read more about Ada-Borup vs. NCE here: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/272092/

A look around the area for boys basketball playoffs...

Section 6AA:
Albany 81, Melrose 60
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 63, West Central Area 59 OT (what a shocker, I'll add more on this game later)
New London-Spicer 79, Pierz 46 (NL-S led 37-25 at halftime and were never challenged)
Staples-Motley 49, Breckenridge 37

Section 3AA Final Four round:
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 61, Montevideo 57
Windom Area 52, Pipestone Area 48

Section 5AA:
Foley 59, St. Cloud Cathedral 56
Maple Lake 64, Zimmerman 61 (a great win for the Irish and for the CMC)
Sibley East 58, Watertown-Mayer 57

Section 3A Final Four round:
Ellsworth 69, Hills-Beaver Creek 54
MACCRAY 78, Minneota 66 (MACCRAY is 28-0)

Section 5A:
Barnum 67, Northland 51
Isle 66, Cromwell 49
Nevis 60, Bertha-Hewitt 49
Sebeka 73, Upsala 53

A look to the past...
Beginning in 1992, when they duked it out with a state-ranked Rocori team in the Sub-Section 5A-3 championship game at Halenbeck Hall in a 48-35 loss, the Jaguars have advanced to sub-section finals a total of eight times. 1992, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, and now 2010. Coach Montbriand has been in charge every one of those seasons. In fact, in eight of his 17 seasons as head coach at B-B-E, he's brought his team to a sub-section final.

This Jaguars boys basketball playoff update is brought to you by: