Boys' basketball wins tough outing at Sauk Centre, girls' basketball suffers loss to Maple Lake

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team lost 55-47 to visiting Maple Lake tonight in their second Central Minnesota Conference game of the season. Up next: a home game against undefeated Osakis (6-0) next Monday with coverage being on Smooth Magic 107 and also the Train 106.5. Maple Lake is 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the CMC, while the Jaguars fell to 2-4 overall with the loss.

Central Minnesota Conference girls' basketball scores on Dec. 14:
Eden Valley-Watkins 57, Kimball Area 38
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 79, Pierz 38
Rockford Area 71, Holdingford 55

James Kuefler, shown driving the baseline on his way to the basket, led the Jaguars with 20 points.

At Sauk Centre, the Jaguars boys' basketball team won 71-57 after getting the lead up to 55-36 with 7:48 on the clock. Brian Goodwin earned a three-point play at that time for the 19-point advantage, but fellow AAU-er Patrick Knoblauch answered that only nine seconds later with a three-pointer to keep Sauk Centre in it.

B-B-E blasted the Mainstreeters in the opening minutes, and a three-point play by James Kuefler with 12:17 left in the first half put the Jaguars up 15-3. For those first few minutes, the Mainstreeters seemed a little shell-shocked. For the final 11 minutes or so of the first half, they toughened up and didn't give B-B-E many open looks.

Overall, Sauk Centre played relatively tough defense for about 80 percent of the game. It was those few moments where they were not disciplined on the defensive end where the Jaguars gave them fits. The Mainstreeters can get up and down the floor pretty quickly, but they simply did not have the personnel to run with the Jaguars.

Here's a clip from around 10 minutes left in the first half...check out the slick move from Trey Heinsius while grabbing a steal and then calling a timeout...
 

Here's a link to a video from the pregame moment of silence tonight and the National Anthem:
http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=94&SubSectionID=381&NewsVideoID=176

Area boys' basketball scores on December 14:
MACCRAY 59, Paynesville Area 44
Browerville 58, Swanville 54
Benson 55, Belle Plaine 51
A-C-GC 63, LQPV 36
Melrose Area 83, Minnewaska Area 48 (I've got some noteworthy game notes on this from D-Mac)
Kimball Area 61, Maple Lake 57 (this was the CMC opener for both squads)
@ Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 46, #1-ranked Litchfield 42! OT!! 
Rockford 68, Dassel-Cokato 51
New London-Spicer 66, Montevideo 45 

Area girls' basketball scores on December 14:
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 58, MACCRAY 27
Royalton 59, West Central Area 53
Brandon/Evansville 47, Ashby 34
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 52, Ortonville 39
Parkers Prairie 78, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 15
Hancock 70, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 43

*Here's the photo gallery from last night's big wrestling win over Paynesville: http://saukherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1582746&CategoryID=69413&ListSubAlbums=0

In the Melrose-Minnewaska game tonight, the Dutchmen boys' basketball team led 61-22 at halftime. In the opening minutes the score was Melrose 11, Minnewaska 8...and then the wheels fell off for the Lakers. Running time (mercy rule) was in effect for the final half of the second half.

More to come on Saturday. I hope that ice storm stays the heck out of Pope/Stearns counties!