Jaguars are in a dog fight vs. Minnewaska...then the Lakers are demolished in the second half

The Jaguars played a pretty solid first half defensively but for a couple of possessions where they gave up easy baskets in the paint to the Lakers...

The Minnewaska Area Lakers, just 1-3 coming into the game, have led on only a couple occasions, but they are playing an inspired game against the Jaguars boys basketball team tonight. The stands were full, with the Lakers bringing a very large crowd over to the gym tonight. It was quite an atmosphere!

At halftime, the Jaguars are now up 30-27 after once holding a 28-13 lead. They've only had a couple strong scoring surges and have missed countless buckets from point blank range. Part of it is the hustling defense being played by the Lakers, no doubt, but having a week off from their last game isn't helping either.

Crazy...can you say, "shaking the rust off!" **In the second half, the Jaguars are destroying Minnewaska...with 9 minutes left it's 53-31! They buried the Lakers with an 18-2 run to open the second half. The Minnewaska crowd, who was very vocal (with good reason) in the first half...was sitting on their hands in shock, jaws dropped, for almost the entire second half. (Yeah, I enjoyed that.)

**Final: the Jaguars won 73-44 to improve to 7-0 overall. They shot exactly 50 percent from the floor (31-of-62), which is a pretty remarkable figure considering they threw up bricks at least 10 times in the first half on close-range field goal attempts. Brian Goodwin had 8 assists and James Kuefler followed with 5 assists to help guide the offense.

The B-squad Jaguars defeated the Lakers in another blowout by a 54-36 score. The C-squad Jaguars won a closer game 46-39. It's always fun to get a 3-0 sweep against a neighboring school.

With a little over 3 minutes gone in the game...the Jaguars led 6-0 tonight...

Both times on shots from point blank, B-B-E goes up 26-13 with 6:52 left and then takes a 28-13 lead with 6:24 on the clock...


At halftime, the Jaguars girls' basketball team leads 19-18 at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City.

Final: A-C-GC 63, B-B-E 40.

Down in Paynesville, the Jaguars wrestling team lost 38-21 in a dual meet. Dillon Knutson earned a 50-second pin at 182 pounds for the only win by fall for B-B-E.

Area boys' basketball scores on Dec. 22:
Ashby 67, Brandon/Evansville 34
Benson 71, Paynesville Area 51
Melrose Area 82, Holdingford 42
Dassel-Cokato 76, New London-Spicer 71
Pierz 80, Mora 58
Litchfield 60, Albany 50
Bertha-Hewitt 79, Upsala 72
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 67, Delano 58

Area girls' basketball scores on Dec. 22:
Albany 72, Sauk Centre 68 (Albany led 33-28 at halftime)
Pierz 67, Little Falls 54
Paynesville Area 57, Melrose Area 54 (a great West Central North Conference win for the Bulldogs...they're 7-1!)
Benson 67, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 62
New London-Spicer 68, Minnewaska Area 43
Parkers Prairie 83, New York Mills 14 (Ouch!)