Jaguars have a double-digit lead at halftime and end up winning by 18 points at Maple Lake

At Maple Lake, the Jaguars boys' basketball team leads by double digits over the Irish at halftime. They eventually opened up a 62-46 lead with just around 3 minutes left in the game. In the first half, the Irish led 9-8 before the Jaguars went on a small run to go up 15-10. With 7:43 left before halftime, the Jaguars led 21-12 after Trey Heinsius grabbed a steal and scored on a fast break and Brian Goodwin drained two free throws. A rebound shot by Kirby Montbriand and a free throw from Connor Goodwin gave the Jaguars a 24-14 lead with 4:12 left.

Final: B-B-E 68, Maple Lake 50. The Maple Lake defense was one factor in the Jaguars shooting only 16-of-40 from the field; but B-B-E made up for that with 23-of-35 shooting at the line. Billy Borgerding led the offense with 19 points, followed by 16 from Brian Goodwin and 11 from James Kuefler.

At tonight's home wrestling invitational, Austin Jaeger picked up an impressive win by fall (1:29) in the wrestlebacks to land a spot in the third-place match. There he lost 3-1 in overtime to Jared Krieger of K-M-S to finish 4th in the 132-pound bracket.

In the wrestling tournament, Patrick Rooney (170 pounds) was the lone champion for B-B-E; he won a 3-0 decision in the championship over Isaac Josephson of Minneota to improve to 14-1 on the season. The Jaguars had four guys in the championship round, with Tyler Tensen, Daniel Rooney and Dillon Knutson all taking runner-up honors. The Jaguars finished 4th overall out of 8 teams with 90 points. Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg won the title with 201 points, barely edging runner-up Minneota, who tallied 199.5 as a team. Becker took third with 169.5. The bottom four teams (in order) were Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale, Ottertail Central, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted.

In a girls' basketball game between two of the top teams in the area, Sauk Centre leads 9th-ranked New London-Spicer 29-16 at halftime on the Mainstreeters' court. Final: Sauk Centre 53, NL-S 40!

Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on Jan. 6:
Pierz 74, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 65 (an impressive win for the Pioneers at Howard Lake)
Kimball Area 54, Eden Valley-Watkins 50 (2 OT!)
Rockford 72, Holdingford 45 (Rockets snap a 5-game losing skid)

Area girls' basketball scores on Jan. 6:
Paynesville Area 62, Minnewaska Area 52 (the Bulldogs are 2-0 in the West Central North Conference; they're the lone unbeaten team in the WCCN as Albany and NL-S both lost tonight)
Melrose Area 54, Albany 50 (an impressive win for the Dutchmen girls' basketball team)
West Central Area 59, Brandon/Evansville 54
Hancock 59, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 36
Parkers Prairie 67, Battle Lake 28

Area boys' basketball scores on Jan. 6:
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 41, Underwood 38
Melrose Area 92, New London-Spicer 56 (WOW...Dutchmen led 52-35 at halftime; Scottie Stone finished with 30 points)
Upsala 75, Eagle Valley 70
Royalton 60, Browerville 56 (the Tigers are upset in conference play; they were ranked #5 in the latest Class A poll...it shows that upsets can happen to top-10 teams!)
St. John's Prep 58, Osakis 53
Montevideo 74, Dawson-Boyd 63
Benson 64, Minnewaska Area 63 (Roger Lindahl's Braves win for the 2nd time this season by a mere one point over the neighboring rival Lakers)