Both Jaguar girls, boys win tonight on the hard court

Senior point guard Julie Hieserich's gritty play down the stretch helped seal tonight's big win over Pierz on the home floor.

In an exciting home game tonight, the Jaguars girls basketball team evened their Central Minnesota Conference record at 6-6 with an improbable 57-45 win over Pierz. Senior Julie Hieserich went 6-of-6 at the free throw line down the stretch to help preserve the win. Brittany Roelike, a reserve sophomore forward, also hit some big free throws in the final minutes of the game (2/2) to help the team pick up their fourth win in a row.

The girls basketball team's four-game winning streak is their best such streak since February of 2009, when they went 5-0 after a tough 42-36 loss to Osakis that put them at 11-7 on the season.

With the loss tonight, Pierz falls to 8-4 in the Central Minnesota Conference and 15-8 overall. Eden Valley-Watkins won tonight over Holdingford and pulls into a tie for second place in the CMC with Pierz. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted currently leads the pack by one game, sitting in first place at 9-3.

Final score from Ashby tonight: B-B-E 85, Ashby 62. The road-weary Jaguars (they went to Parkers Prairie on Monday night) jumped out to an early 19-8 lead on the Arrows' court on their way to a 42-25 halftime lead. Ranked number two in Class A, the Jaguars are now 21-0, while Ashby is now 12-8. There are only three undefeated boys basketball teams in the entire state of Minnesota right now, and one of them is B-B-E. They have a huge, huge, huge, HUGE game tomorrow night at their house, when Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted comes to town.

Did I mention that the game is huge?

More will follow later tonight.

A few notes on a game out west: Minnewaska Area picked up an improbable 59-58 win over visiting Montevideo tonight, in front of a near-full house crowd. What gave the game an added twist of drama is that the Lakers (20-2) were playing without their top scoring threat - senior Shane Bosek. Montevideo led 35-18 with a little over 2 minutes left in the first half. Halftime score: Thunderhawks 37, Lakers 26. At the end of regulation, the game was tied 52-52.

Central Minnesota Conference girls basketball scores on Feb. 17:
Eden Valley-Watkins 59, Holdingford 41
Kimball Area 65, Rockford 61

Games involving Section 6A girls basketball teams:
Brandon/Evansville 52, Battle Lake 46
West Central Area 65, Ulen-Hitterdal 20 (U-H is in SS-6A-North)
Hancock 46, Underwood 33

Area boys basketball scores on February 17:
Minnewaska Area 59, Montevideo 58 (OT thriller at MAHS in front of over 1500 fans!)
Dawson-Boyd 95, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 31
St.Cloud Apollo 68, Little Falls 57 OT
Melrose Area 68, Albany 66
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 55, Sauk Centre 35 (I don't believe it, I have to see that score at a second source)

Area girls basketball scores on Feb. 17:
New London-Spicer 65, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 41
Montevideo 47, Minnewaska Area 32
Marshall 69, Willmar 50
K-M-S 61, Central MN Christian 42 (K-M-S leads the Camden North Conference at 11-3)
Maccray 50, Lakeview 31 (Wolverines are tied at 2nd in the Camden North at 9-4 with CMCS)
Dawson-Boyd 80, Renville County West 37
Paynesville 57, Benson 55 (a huge win for the Bulldogs' program)
Upsala 77, Browerville 48
A-C-GC 48, Lac qui Parle Valley 41
Parkers Prairie 62, Ashby 20

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