Jaguars pull away from the Irish in the 2nd half on their way to a CMC win

**Terrible news I heard earlier tonight...please pray for 2009 Eden Valley-Watkins graduate Hannah Linz. A classy, down-to-earth former stand out athlete with Coach Tom Jansen's Eagles girls' basketball team, she is a guard on the North Dakota State University women's basketball team who has suffered a recurrence of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Her career is over after having beat it back once during her freshmen season in Fargo. It's just not right. Pray for her and her family. 

Brian Goodwin sank this ridiculously difficult layup with two guys collapsing on him...for B-B-E's first field goal of the night with 27 seconds gone in the first half.

Adam Heinze (right) and Alex Wosmek force this Irish player to pass while attempting to drive the lane.

With 12:56 left in the 2nd half, the Jaguars boys' basketball team has a 44-28 lead over Maple Lake. The Irish have been held scoreless so far after halftime.

In the first half, the Irish kept things interesting right up until the last couple of minutes. They cut 4 to 6-point deficits down to one point on a couple of occasions. B-B-E had an 11-4 lead only to see the Irish cut it down to 12-10 three minutes later. The Jaguars then had leads of 18-17, 20-19 and then 28-26 before they rocked the Irish with an 8-2 run in the final two minutes before halftime.

At halftime, the Jaguars were up 36-28.

The Jaguars shown on defense, including Alex Schumann, David Rodgers, Henrik Hano and Justin Schmitz (21).

With the phrase "We enjoy defense" hanging on the south wall, the Jaguars clamped down on the Irish with an 8-0 run in the first five minutes after halftime. After Maple Lake hit a three-pointer with 12:41 left, the Jaguars rocked the visitors once again with an 11-0 run spanning only two minutes of the game. A pull up shot by Brian Goodwin from 12 feet out made it 55-31 with 9:12 left in the game. The final score was B-B-E 71, Maple Lake 55.

The Jaguars take a 9-0 record up against state-ranked MACCRAY (6-1, 4-1 Camden North Conference) on Saturday on the home floor. The B- and C-squad games are at 1:30pm, with the varsity game to follow at 3:00pm. The Wolverines average a respectable 59.4 points per game but have an outstanding defensive average of 40.1 points per game. They have won four in a row.

Brian Goodwin needs 10 points to get to 1,000 career points; he finished tonight's game with 24 points to get to 990 varsity points over the last three seasons.

You bet they do!

What a game up at Pierz! Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted won 50-47 in a battle of two of the top challengers for the Jaguars in winning another Central Minnesota Conference title.

...and some video from the 2nd half...


The Jaguars have one day of practice tomorrow and then have a brutal stretch with three games in four days, the latter two being difficult road trips. They travel to undefeated Ashby (7-0) on Monday and then have to go down to Rockford the following night. The Rockets, winners of four straight, will be very tough; do not let their 5-6 record fool you. They were good enough to hand Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta a 55-48 overtime loss in a Christmas break tournament at St. James.

Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on Jan. 3:
Rockford Area 51, Holdingford 29
Kimball Area 58, Eden Valley-Watkins 46
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 50, Pierz 47 (@ Pierz!)

Area boys' basketball scores on January 3:
LP-GE 61, West Central Area 49
Melrose Area 72, Paynesville Area 36
Upsala 80, Osakis 38
Montevideo 76, Benson 59
Minnewaska Area 88, Yellow Medicine East 71
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 65, BOLD 45
Browerville 62, St. John's Prep 57
Swanville 69, Royalton 60 
Underwood 67, Parkers Prairie 45
Sauk Centre beat LQPV (in Hantho Township) but I don't have a final score 
Henning 82, Verndale 70 
Battle Lake 78, Hancock 60 (Owls led 34-30 at halftime but got destroyed in the 2nd half by a 48-26 margin)