Jaguars girls basketball improves to 2-1 after drubbing Maple Lake in the Central Minnesota Conference opener - Jaguars boys hoops pound Benson

Final score from Maple Lake tonight: B-B-E 67, Maple Lake 35. Quite a win for the Jaguars! They shot 57% from the floor in the win, while out-rebounding the smaller Irish by a whopping 46-19 margin. Even more impressive was their 63% shooting mark from two-point range. Junior post Shyan Kuefler led the Jaguars with an impressive double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Maple Lake fell to 2-2 overall with the loss.

Two weeks into the season, the Jaguars girls basketball team leads the CMC with a 65 points per game offensive average. Defensively, they are third best out of the eight teams in the league at 46.3 points per game.

Central Minnesota Conference girls basketball results from Dec. 14:
Eden Valley-Watkins 60, Kimball Area 27
Pierz 56, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 48
Holdingford 75, Rockford 69

Pierz squares their record at 2-2; HLWW falls to 2-3. The Lakers travel to Belgrade to face the Jaguars this Friday night in another CMC game. Holdingford picked up their first win of the year vs. Rockford after two blowout losses to neighbors Albany and Upsala.

It should be a fun CMC girls basketball race this season. At least after seeing results of two of the opening-night games, it appears as though there are haves and have-nots in the league.

Scouting report from the HLWW vs. Pierz girls game: the host Lakers led 7-0 right off the bat. The Pioneers scored a 6-0 run to get it to a 26-25 deficit at halftime. The surge continued in the second half, as the Pioneers went on a 6-0 run out of the locker room to go up 31-26. Pierz never trailed in the second half, stretching the lead as high as 10 points. The Pierz posts combined for 31 rebounds and 6 blocks. Thanks to Pierz head coach Rick Sczublewski for that information.

**A sports broadcasting note: the Friday night girls hoops game between HLWW and the Jaguars will be aired on 106.5FM The Train. So will Thursday night's boys hoops game at Sauk Centre. Tune in if you can't make the game!

In the home opener for the Jaguars boys basketball team tonight, against Roger Lindahl's senior-dominated Benson team no less, the visiting Braves went home with a big 73-53 loss. The Jaguars improve to 3-0 overall heading into Thursday night's showdown at Sauk Centre in another non-conference game.

Benson has eight seniors on their boys basketball roster this year.

I tell you, scoring 275 points in their first three games is quite an accomplishment! We'll see how they do against the Mainstreeters, who are much improved over last year's unit.

At the Kimball Tri, the Jaguars wrestling team lost by wide margins in duals with the host Cubs and the Annandale/Maple Lake Lightning.

Area girls basketball scores on December 14:
Sauk Centre 66, St.Cloud Cathedral 43
Campbell-Tintah-Fairmont 45, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 31
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 42, Minnewaska Area 35
Perham 69, West Central Area 64
Henning 47, Eagle Valley 38

Area boys basketball results on December 14:
LP-GE 68, Melrose Area 42 (LP-GE is a surprising 4-0)
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 63, Underwood 33
West Central Area 77, Frazee 61 (WCA trailed 19-7 out of the gates but outscored the Hornets 48-31 in the second half to improve to 3-0)
Maple Lake 66, Foley 46
Yellow Medicine East 47, Paynesville Area 45
Delano 67, Rockford 45
St.Cloud Cathedral 73, Sauk Centre 62
Minnewaska Area 59, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 57 (quite a win in a classic border battle between conference/sub-section rivals on the Lakers' court)
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 53, Sibley East 50
Battle Lake 73, Hancock 45
Osakis 59, Swanville 54
New London-Spicer 88, Milaca 54
Brandon/Evansville 60, Ashby 40 (B/E is 3-0)
Montevideo 66, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 36

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