Jaguar girls frustrated in the end by Rockford

The seniors were honored before tonight's game with gift bags from the underclassmen.

The game started out very well tonight against Rockford Area, with the Jaguars girls' basketball team going up 7-2 on Seniors Night in the first 3 minutes after Peyton Miller knocked down her first three-pointer with 15:10 left.

A back-and-forth struggle played out from there up until late in the first half. With 11 minutes left, Alex Evenson banked in a jumper to tie it at 11-11, and then with 6:30 to go Becca Gruber scored to put the Jaguars ahead 17-16.

The Rockets hit too many three-pointers in the first half, though, and utilized an 8-0 run in the last 26 seconds to go up 39-32 at the break. It was a stunning reversal of fortune for the Jaguars, who pulled ahead 32-31 with 57 seconds left on two Kinlee Swanson bonus free throws.

The Jaguars will be ready for Royalton next Thursday!!!!

Final score: Rockford Area 68, B-B-E 61. Up next for the Jaguars is the Sub-Section 5A-South opener, next Thursday, March 6 at 7:00pm at the high school. With the #3 seed, we host #6-seeded Royalton that night. Future playoff dates beyond that are March 8 and March 11....but we have to beat Royalton first!!!

More will be posted tomorrow. Calling it a night.

Remember, Saturday night

Hey Jaguar fans, remember...tip off is at 6:00pm in Little Falls tomorrow night!!

GET THERE EARLY!

Down at halftime

It's almost unthinkable, but a 32-31 lead for the Jaguars girls' basketball team went up in smoke in the final 30 seconds of the first half. The Rockets scored 8 points in the last 26 seconds to go into the locker room with a 39-32 lead.

Here's some first-half video:


9:34 left 2nd half...Rockets up 56-46.

They lost after having a 61-60 lead.

Updates

BTW updates will be a little slow, slim and far between this weekend. Dealing with a lot right now other than sports, so I apologize for the lack of blogging that those in Jaguar Country will notice as of today.

A pure heartbreaker

Ben battling at state today. 

he state wrestling bracket was set up well for Ben Feuerhake to open the state wrestling tournament today in St.Paul.

With Feuerhake leading 4-0 with just 20 seconds left in the 3rd period, Logan Nibbe got an escape, takedown and near fall points to win 6-4 in what was an exciting match for Jaguar fans right until the end.

Hey Jaguar Country, let's soak this up!

I AGREE!

Let's pull out all the stops to support our outstanding, hard-working student athletes at B-B-E!

Friday: state wrestling with Ben Feuerhake at Xcel Energy Center; first-round at 9:00am, and quarterfinals are in the evening.

Friday: Jaguar girls' basketball regular season finale against Rockford Area. JV/C-squads at 6:00 and the varsity at 7:30.

Saturday: the B-B-E Speech team competes at Sauk Centre. I'm anxious to see how that turns out!

Saturday: Jaguar boys' basketball in the playoff sub-section semis in Little Falls at 6:00pm  get there early and help PACK FLYER GYMNASIUM!! Tell me why we shouldn't???? Let's complement our awesome B-B-E Pep Band and the basketball team and coaches with 2,000 fans!!!!! (Their capacity is 3,000....so we can certainly allow some room for Upsala, Swanville and Kimball fans.)

Jaguars rip apart Royalton

Coach Montbriand took about 8 minutes of halftime to honor the 9 seniors on the team. This wretched winter we've had so far pushed "Senior Night" into the playoffs.

THESE GUYS!!!

Here's some pregame footage plus tip off and the opening minutes tonight!


The Jaguars boys' basketball team defeated 8th-seeded Royalton 84-29 to open the Sub-Section 5A-South playoffs tonight. They led 7-0 just 77 seconds after tip off and held a 24-5 lead at the 10-minute mark. Two consecutive slam dunks by James Kuefler, a one-hander and a two-hander, electrified the packed hometown crowd and put the Jaguars up 36-7 with 4 minutes before halftime.

The six-time defending Central Minnesota Conference champion Jaguars completed their 5th straight season of perfection on the home court. It's an amazing record that puts them at #2 in terms of the longest home winning streak in Minnesota. We're at 71, with Walnut Grove (1952-1960) holding 72 in a row at the top of that lofty list.

More details on the game will follow after 10:30pm tonight.

**Update: the Jaguars will face Swanville on Saturday night in Little Falls. The Bulldogs (14-10) beat Isle 59-56 tonight. More details to follow on that later. 

Upsala beat East Central 87-69, and Kimball Area beat Onamia 86-47. 

Upset special in 5A-North: #7 Bertha-Hewitt 52, #2 Verndale 45.

If you haven't "liked" the B-B-E Jaguars on Facebook, do it now! https://www.facebook.com/BBEJaguars?ref=hl

**Update: here's the photo album from the playoff opener at the Sauk Centre Herald website:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2014-BBE-basketball-playoffs/Step-I-BBE-boysBB-84-Royalton-

Here's the final ticks on tonight's historic game:


Up next is a date with either Swanville (13-10, 4th seed) or Isle (13-12, 5th seed) in the semifinal round at Little Falls this Saturday at 6:00pm.

At Melrose, 7th-seeded Holdingford led 30-22 in a Sub-Section 6AA-North quarterfinal. The Dutchmen made things right in the second half and won 59-42.

Area boys' basketball playoff scores on February 27:
Sauk Centre 73, Osakis 45
Staples-Motley 65, Pierz 56
Paynesville Area 74, Minnewaska 73 OT
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 68, Pillager 51
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 56, Hancock 41
New London-Spicer 67, St. John's Prep 44 (Wildcats trailed by one at halftime but scored the first 22 points of the second half)
Litchfield 50, Benson 38
Eden Valley-Watkins 67, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 58

First half

7 minutes to go...30-7 Jaguars are up!

Halftime: BBE 48, Royalton 14.

9 minutes to go....77 to 20.

The Jaguars girls' basketball team won 72-55 at Minnewaska Area! Great job! They host Rockford tomorrow night.

Girls' basketball team clobbering Minnewaska

At Minnewaska tonight, the Jaguars have a 38-21 second half lead.

A special night in store

Tonight will be a special night as the Jaguars boys' basketball team defends their home court for the last time this season. For the 9 seniors, it's their final chance to continue adding to our incredible home winning streak that's over 5 years old.

**No radio tonight. The Train is at NLS tonight, while D-Mac has the Minnewaska game to cover. It appears that we'll have both radio stations at Saturday's game.

Saving this: http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/records.asp?actnum=402

Jaguar girls' basketball gets #3 playoff seed

Tri-captains Kinlee Swanson, Megan Weller and Becca Gruber stand during the pregame chat by the referees on Monday night before facing Pierz.

It's the highest post-season basketball seed the Jaguars girls' basketball team has earned since the 1995-96 season. They host Royalton (6-15) in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 6 at 7:00pm. The Royals will be a tough opponent. I noticed in their last game they beat visiting Maple Lake 51-44.

If the Jaguars win their quarterfinal game, they play in the semifinals in Pierz at 7:45pm on Saturday, March 8. Their opponent will likely be defending sub-section and section champion Upsala. Beyond that, playoff dates are March 11 and March 14 before the state tournament the following week.

**Scheduling note for today: the Jaguars travel to Minnewaska Area for a non-conference border battle. The JV and C-squad Jaguars face the Lakers at 3:30pm, with the varsity to tip off at 5:00pm. The plan is that the Jaguars will return to B-B-E in time to catch most of the boys' basketball game tonight. It was extremely classy for the Minnewaska Area school to agree to move this game up to accommodate that.

2014 Sub-Section 5A-South girls' basketball seeds:
1st Isle (21-2)
2nd Upsala (13-10)
3rd B-B-E (11-13)
4th East Central (8-12)
5th Kimball Area (6-17)
6th Royalton (6-15)
7th Ogilvie (7-15)
8th Swanville (3-21)
9th Onamia (3-20)

More will be posted later.

Sub-Section 5A-South boys' basketball pairings

2014 Sub-Section 5A-South boys' basketball rankings:
1st - B-B-E
2nd - Upsala
3rd - Kimball Area
4th - Swanville
5th - Isle
6th - Onamia
7th - East Central
8th - Royalton
9th - Ogilvie (eliminated, 0-24 finish)
10th - St. Cloud Christian (eliminated, 9-8 finish)

The Jaguars boys' basketball team (24-1) hosts Royalton tonight in their playoff opener. The Royals (3-21, 0-13 Prairie Conference) eliminated Ogilvie 73-57 on Monday night; East Central beat St. Cloud Christian 68-26 to advance to the quarterfinal round.

Sub-Section 5A-South and 5A-North quarterfinals are tonight at 7:00pm at the high seeds.

The semifinal round games are at 6:00pm and 7:30pm on Saturday, March 1 at Flyer Gymnasium, Little Falls.

2014 Sub-Section 5A-North boys' basketball rankings:
1st Browerville
2nd Verndale
3rd Nevis
4th Menahga
5th Parkers Prairie
6th Hill City
7th Bertha-Hewitt
8th Pine River-Backus
9th Northland (eliminated)
10th Sebeka (eliminated)

Thinking spring

As another school day was torn up by our Minnesota winter, I chatted after school today with our new head track coach, Luke Lagergren, as the buses were loading. He told me some news that almost startled me: the opening track practice for the 2014 season is March 10!

Holy smokes!

B-B-E schools closing early today, 2-26-14

The rough winter continues unabated. Above: buses run east on Highway 55 to pick up students at the high school this afternoon. How will the weather affect playoffs in March? Time will tell.

Due to the impending blizzard and blizzard conditions heading towards Jaguar Country, B-B-E schools are closing at 1:15pm today. No after-school activities or practices will take place tonight. Please watch out for children and help neighbors today as you are able to. Safety first!!!

The announcement was made around noon today.

According to the National Weather Service, very strong winds will develop today and continue tonight as colder air moves across the area. Northwest winds of 25-35 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph, are expected to begin early this afternoon.

As I was walking across the street to the elementary school, the conditions (sheltered by the school building) seemed fairly calm. Then approximately 10 minutes later, as I was walking east back across the street from the school, the northwest wind almost knocked me over a couple of times. Wow! Talk about quickly-changing conditions. I'd say between noon and 2:00pm today, the winds switched from coming out of the southwest to coming out of the northwest.

I expect things to get worse hour by hour today.

**Class of 2020 parents: their class ski trip is postponed to Monday, March 10.

Here's an awesome story in the West Central Tribune:
http://www.wctrib.com/content/prep-football-falcons-hire-blom-new-head-coach
I've known Coach Blom for many, many years. He is a former member of the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling coaching staff. I have the utmost respect for him as a coach and as a person. Good luck, Coach Blom!!!

Senior Night is Thursday

The nine seniors on the Jaguars boys' basketball team will be honored at the playoff opener on our home court Thursday.

It will be a special night indeed!

Parents Night honors, and then a tough loss

There were plenty of smiles and hugs prior to pregame drills tonight, as Parents Night was held to honor those involved in the athletic programs who basically make the world go around day to day.

Without the help and support of parents, clearly we wouldn't have a Jaguar athletic program.

Once the game got going, it was clear that Pierz was determined to bring home the win. The Pioneers put the Jaguars girls' basketball team into a 12-2 hole early with under 4 minutes gone and kept in control basically the entire game.

A three by Kinlee Swanson got the Jaguars within one, down 14-13, with about 11 minutes left in the first half. Swanson's rebound shot with 8:30 on the clock tied it at 19-19. Alex Evenson's bucket tied the game again at 23-23 with 6:52 left. Swanson scored next to give the Jaguars their first lead of the night at 25-23.

Hailey Braegelman's free throw put the Jaguars up 26-25, and soon they held their final lead of the night at 28-27 in the closing minutes of the first half. With 1:49 left, Braegelman scored, and in the last minute Megan Weller knocked down two bonus free throws to make it a 35-34 deficit at the break.

To start the second half, the Jaguars gave up a 5-0 run to Pierz and got a rebound basket by Weller to make it 40-36 with 16 minutes left in the game. That four-point spread was the closest the Jaguars got from there in a 77-68 loss. They launched a whopping 84 field goal attempts but made just 26 of them. At the line the Jaguars shot 15-for-28. Swanson scored a career-high 28 points to lead all scorers.

In boys' basketball news, Royalton, the #8 seed, beat #9-seed Ogilvie 73-57 in the Sub-Section 5A-South play-in round tonight. That means Royalton (3-21, 0-13 Prairie South Conference) will travel to B-B-E on Thursday night for the quarterfinals with a 7:00pm tip off with our top-seeded Jaguars boys' basketball team. Ogilvie finishes the season 0-24.

Second-seeded Upsala, meanwhile, hosts East Central (#7 seed) for their playoff opener on Thursday.

Area girls' basketball scores on Feb. 24:
Rockford Area 66, Minneapolis Henry 21
Albany 85, Milaca 68
Browerville 81, Upsala 61
Sauk Centre 69, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 46 (Mainstreeters win 5th straight West Central North Conf. title and 4th in a row all alone)
Brandon/Evansville 49, Melrose Area 46

Area boys' basketball scores on Feb. 24:
Hancock 50, Ashby 42 (sub-section opener, #10 Owls upset the Arrows)
Melrose 68, Staples-Motley 45
Browerville 66, Osakis 45
Upsala 95, West Central Area 59 (Cardinals shred 17-7 WCA)
Rockford Area 85, Pierz 67 (Rockets finish 7-7 in the CMC in a tie for 4th with Eden Valley-Watkins)

Jaguar basketball is on Smooth Magic

Tip off for our Jaguars girls' basketball team on Parents Night is at 7:00 tonight against Pierz at home. D-Mac has the call on 107.1 FM.

Updates: the C-squad Jaguars win 40-24 tonight with Morgan Gronli and Nicole Wesbur in double figures; the JV Jaguars won 64-45 to complete a 4-0 run against Pierz by the preliminary teams this season.

Update: varsity halftime Pierz up 35-34.

Final: a tough 77-68 loss. Dang it!!!

More coming after 10pm.

Pastor's house is unharmed

All is well on Second Street, as Brooten's finest are on the scene.

Late this afternoon, a fire call went out in Brooten to the Trinity Lutheran Church parsonage. It appears that there was no actual fire, or if there was it went out quickly. The Brooten Fire Department responded at 3:41pm to inspect what happened. According to Pastor Kaden, it was a furnace-related issue. Their kids and his wife were not home at the time.

All is well, although it is one more example of just how difficult this winter has been. Everything that has to do with the cold (humans, furnaces, water lines, water pipes, roofs, windows, cars, trucks, you name it!) has carried a heavy burden since the first week of December.

(Video) Colby Schramel at sections

Colby Schramel (shown in the black singlet) finished third at 132 pounds in the Section 5A tournament held on Saturday in Kimball:


Colby, a sophomore, improved on his 5th-place finish as a freshmen at the section tournament. He is 44-34 overall in the last two seasons.

State will be great!

Ben Feuerhake earned the Section 5A heavyweight runner-up spot to advance to the state tournament for the first time in his career.

Congratulations Ben Feuerhake, sophomore heavyweight for the Jaguars wrestling team. He opens the 2014 Class A state tournament at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul at 9:00am on Friday, February 28. The second session, the quarterfinal round, begins at 4:30pm that same day for Ben if he wins his state opener. The tournament concludes on Saturday.

Ben started the section tournament with a 3-2 decision win over fellow sophomore Peter Hagen of Osakis. He proceeded to earn an upset 6-3 decision win over A-C-GC's senior Jordan Fester. In the section championship, Ben lost by fall to HL-W-W's Garrett Schanus, a junior who takes a 32-7 record into state.

Ben takes a 27-11 record to state.

**Update: in his state wrestling opener, Ben will face Logan Nibbe, a junior from Prairie Valley with a 36-4 record. Nibbe was heavyweight champion at the Section 6A tournament. If he beats Nibbe, he'll face the winner of the match between senior Taylor Carlson (Section 8A, United North Central, 31-2) and Steven Smith (Section 4A, Norwood-Young America, 21-15) in the Class A state quarterfinals on Friday night.

A special day for the boys' basketball team

Assistant coach Michael Rodgers, who was a senior point guard on B-B-E's first conference champion boys' basketball team in 2008-09, grabbed the CMC title banner before the team photo today.

The seniors rock!! What an extremely special group of student-athletes.

I don't think anyone in the gymnasium at this moment, during pregame, had any idea what type of lopsided game was about to play out today.

The six-time defending conference champion Jaguars boys' basketball team has three days of solid practice sessions ahead of them before they open the much-anticipated playoffs on Thursday. That night they host Ogilvie or Royalton in the Sub-Section 5A-South quarterfinals with a 7:00pm tip off.

And by the way, I learned that the Class A state wrestling tournament (individual) will start at 9:00am on Friday in St. Paul. More wrestling information is coming later.

Jaguar wrestlers battling in sections

Josey Tensen and Ben Feuerhake both earned spots in their championship matches today to lead a host of Jaguar wrestling team members who are having great showings at the Section 5A individual tournament in Kimball.

Very cool!

*Update: Ben Feuerhake is in! He locked up a state berth with his semifinal win. Josey will wrestle in a true-second match for a shot at his 2nd straight state trip.

Here's Ben Feuerhake in his championship match. He made a nice move on his opponent, but his opponent answered the move and ultimately got a pin. It shows just how close "winning" and "losing" can be in wrestling. Ben should be extremely proud of what he accomplished today.


*Update: Josey lost in his true second match to finish in third place. A tough ending for his junior season.

I've got a couple great contacts in Kimball at the section tournament, and I'm hugely thankful for that. I had to drive up to Alexandria for the Section 5A swimming and diving meet...work requirements...although am very upset at myself for not getting to Kimball today. I was looking forward to spending the entire day in Kimball earlier this season for the 2nd day of sections and never imagined the weather would make an absolutely wretched mess of things...work commitments came up for the tail end of today when I realized I had to attend the swim/dive meet in Alexandria...and the most recent snow storm on Thursday shoved a very significant conference basketball game to this afternoon.

In the journalism world, it was truly a "perfect storm" that ruined all my original plans. Can't do much about it. Now I have to look to see that the state wrestling tournament can work out for me! My fingers are crossed.

Jaguars completely take apart Kimball Area

The 9 seniors and their moms today after the game.

A competitive boys' basketball played out for just a couple of minutes after tip off today in the last regular-season game for a very special group of student-athletes at B-B-E. That competitiveness wore off quickly, though.

Once the Jaguars got rolling, they posted a 12-0 score in just a couple minutes of game time, then led 17-8 before pouring it on. About 90 seconds before halftime, the Jaguars led 44-17 before the Cubs (14-10 overall) got two late baskets. Brian Goodwin knocked down a jumper in the lane with 4 seconds left to make it 48-21 at halftime.

Out of the locker room, the Jaguars quickly crushed the Cubs' spirits. Billy Borgerding canned a three-pointer just 10 seconds into the second half. Kimball played with a lot of hustle in the first 6 minutes after halftime, but their hard play was not rewarded with points. In fact, through the first 12 minutes of the second half, Kimball scored just four points!

James Kuefler scored a season-high 19 points. It was a very fun game to watch - the Jaguars definitely brought their "A" game to the delight of our hometown fans.

Final score: B-B-E 90, Kimball Area 36. The Cubs finished 7-7 in the Central Minnesota Conference for 5th place. The Jaguars went 14-0 in the CMC for the fourth straight season! They now have a CMC winning streak of 69 games in a row dating back to December 2009. Their home winning streak now stands at 70 dating back to their last home loss on January 30, 2009 to Roger Lindahl's Benson Braves. In the last 6 years, they've lost just one home game (that Benson loss).

Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (20-5) finished 12-2 in the CMC as runners-up.

Here's some video from the first half today:


Keep mind that the Cubs are the #3 seed in Sub-Section 5A-South. If the Jaguars win their playoff opener on Thursday and Kimball Area wins Thursday and also on Saturday against (probably) Upsala, these two teams will meet again in the sub-section semis on Saturday, March 1.

More will follow late tonight.

Here it is! Mike Max's WCCO news clip on the Jaguars

Click and let it load up on your Internet browser:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/9870483-three-towns-united-by-one-basketball-team/#.Uwgsbc-OsB0.facebook 

And on a different note, I learned that because of the bad conditions on I-94, the B-B-E Speech team will not make the trip to Centennial high school on Saturday for a speech meet.

*Update: Saturday's game against Kimball Area will be on 106.5 FM The Train. They were originally scheduled to call the game on Thursday, then the weather pushed the game to Saturday. Luckily The Train had no scheduling conflicts.

Section 5A wrestling is Saturday (*all day!)

Wrestle your hearts out, Jaguars! Make him proud.

The Jaguars welcome Joe Reller back to the huddle after he picked up a win against Kimball on January 23.

Re-posted from the B-B-E school Facebook page:
The individual Section 5A wrestling tourney will be done in its entirety tomorrow in Kimball. The player bus will leave from Brooten at 7:15am and Belgrade at 7:30. 

Wrestling is scheduled to start at 11:00am. Championship matches are scheduled to begin around 5:00 PM if things go as planned.

Make tracks to Kimball tomorrow and cheer on our Jaguars to the state tournament!

**Here's an eyewitness report from Interstate-94:
Eastbound 94 is glare ice from Albany on... They have a stretch of freeway from Achmann Lake past the Collegeville exit completely closed down. Traffic is at a standstill at Avon due to an accident and also the road closer divergent so please be cautious at the spot because you can't stop with that ice in time and the stopped/slow traffic comes up fast.

**Update at 11:30am related to BASKETBALL, re-posted from the B-B-E school Facebook page:
The boys game vs Melrose has been officially canceled. Parents night for boys is tomorrow. 

The girls game with Minnewaska has been postponed to Thursday, Februart 27, still a road game. The girls will play Pierz instead on Monday, February 24. Monday will be parents night for girls. The JV and C games will begin 30 minutes earlier than normal at 5:30 on Monday. Varsity should begin around 7:00pm.

Wow: check this out! http://www.wctrib.com/content/renville-county-communities-open-doors-134-stranded-motorists

B-B-E schools closed today

Another "Monday off" of school bites the dust.

I have to learn more about the Section 5A wrestling before I post about that.

The Melrose boys' basketball game is nixed...will (probably) not be made up because it's a non-conference game.

Stay tuned!!!

**9am update: Section 5A wrestling will not happen tonight in Kimball. Kimball schools (the host site of the tournament) among a host of other schools are closed today. According to Coach Friedrichs, it's possible that the entire tournament will take place tomorrow, Saturday, at Kimball. It would start much earlier than 12 noon of course. Announcements related to this will be posted ASAP.

Also, be advised that ANY travel on rural roads is dangerous and puts your life at risk. For example, Highway 28 between Sauk Centre and Villard is impassable in multiple locations. Complete white-outs, drifts too big to drive through...not good!!!

The Pierz girls' basketball game that was supposed to be tonight will probably be moved to Monday night. The Minnewaska game that was supposed to be Monday will probably be nixed and not made up.

**Remember to check on your neighbors today, young or old. Even if it's with a simple phone call, let's watch out for one another and do what we can to get through it. We're all in this together.

And for God's sakes people, STAY HOME if you are able to!

Windy all weekend

Looks like the wind is gonna blow all weekend. I don't see wind speeds dropping below 15 mph until Monday.

2 Hours Late!

B-B-E is 2 hours late on Friday, February 21, 2014.

Please help out neighbors and friends as the buses will run 2 hours later in the morning for pick ups...it's wicked out there!

Visibility is absolutely zero in at least three locations between Sauk Centre and Elrosa on Highway 71. If you've driven that stretch of highway in the last couple of weeks, you'll know where.

Let's cross our fingers that this system calms down and school can resume in the morning. I will go nuts if we can't have our basketball games tomorrow night.

Worse, it would get really ugly if the Section 5A wrestling tournament in Kimball is disrupted. That begins on Friday and concludes on Saturday, weather-permitting!

10:02pm...I just glanced at the "hourly" forecast for the B-B-E area. It doesn't look good. The 20+ mph winds are predicted to stick around throughout the day on Friday.

I don't know the answer to what should happen in the next couple of days.

More to follow later.

Difficult driving in rural areas

Travel with caution! Rural roads are not in good shape, especially in terms of visibility.

ENOUGH winter! Boys' basketball game postponed

Tonight's Jaguars boys' basketball team vs. Kimball Area game is postponed from tonight to Saturday, February 22. The JV plays at 11 with varsity to follow at 12:30pm. Please spread the word.

Ugh!!! I was really looking forward to the game, as it would complete this team's run through the Central Minnesota Conference schedule.

The 5th/6th grade boys' basketball players were supposed to play tonight at halftime. **Update: they will play at halftime onSaturday. Also, tonight was supposed to be Parents Night, and that will be Friday night instead.

Also, the 7th/8th grade backcourt boys' basketball tournament that was supposed to be held on Saturday at the elementary school has been scrubbed.

The 3rd-6th grade basketball will practice on Saturday at the elementary at 9 to 10:15.

Stay tuned.

Celebrity visits B-B-E

Fun facts: Mrs. Gullickson's father-in-law is Mike Max's cousin...and Mrs. Wentzlaff used to date one of Mike Max's friends.

Mike Max's cameraman is shown taping part of the Jaguar practice today.

WCCO's Mike Max was in town today making stops at Max Bats and also at the Jaguar boys' basketball practice. His segment on the Jaguars will be shown during the latter half of the 10:00pm newscast on WCCO this Friday night, February 21.

How cool is that!!!!!!

WCCO's Mike Max coming to BBE!

Actually he's already here. I saw him and a cameraman leaving Max Bats in Brooten.

He's in town to meet and interview our Jaguars boys' basketball team.

**Spread the word: watch and/or DVR this Friday night's WCCO news at 10:00. The segment will air after about 10:15.

By the way, days later, I am finally reporting that Daisha Meyer and Jared Steffensen were named the 2014 B-B-E Snow-Daze queen and king. The coronation was held Tuesday morning at the high school. I had family commitments that kept me from attending. Congratulations to Daisha and Jared!! They are both fantastic student-athletes at our school.

Tough cuts coming to area schools

Just saw in the Long Prairie Leader...Swanville is facing $294,000 in budget cuts this spring, which is a huge, huge figure for a school of their size.

To the west, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle is facing upwards of $400,000 in budget cuts. They've cut $2 million dollars from their budget in the last 5 years. Meanwhile, their enrollment has plummeted by 220 students.

As well as things have gone at B-B-E in recent years budget-wise, we should all be quick to note that things can change in a hurry. We have to work every day to promote our school and the good things happening here. We have much to be proud of in Jaguar Country!!!

Sub-Section 5A-South boys' basketball seedings

The Jaguars shown warming up at Minnetonka high school back in December.

Seeding is complete!

1 - B-B-E 23-1
2 - Upsala 21-2
3 - Kimball Area 14-9
4 - Swanville 13-10
5 - Isle 13-12
6 - Onamia 10-14
7 - East Central 7-15
8 - Royalton 2-21
9 - Ogilvie 0-23
10 - St. Cloud Christian 9-7

Royalton and Ogilvie meet in the play-in round next Monday. The winner of that game comes to our house on Thursday, February 27 with a 7:00pm tip off in the Sub-Section 5A-South quarterfinals.

Upsala will host either East Central or St. Cloud Christian in their playoff opener. Browerville (16-5) is the top seed in Sub-Section 5A-North, followed by Verndale (19-5), Nevis (12-10) and Menagha (13-10).

Jaguar fans, here's the playoff dates to circle!
March 1, sub-section semis at Little Falls high school
March 4, sub-section finals at Little Falls high school
March 7, Section 5A championship at Crosby-Ironton high school

Of course, the Jaguars and all our fans have to take it one game at a time. You don't win a section championship without getting the first three wins under your belt.

More will follow later.

Seeding is today

The playoff seeding for the Sub-Section 5A-South boys' basketball playoffs will take place today. The Jaguars will face either Royalton or Ogilvie in the sub-section quarterfinals next Thursday night, February 27, in a home game.

My money is on Royalton winning the play-in round game; they beat the 0-23 Lions 44-21 on January 31.

(Videos, photos and more) Basketball action tonight

Kinlee Swanson applies tight pressure against Holdingford's star senior guard, Joelle Ertl, late in tonight's game. Ertl has signed with Mayville State University to continue her stellar basketball career.

The Jaguars girls' basketball team played with tremendous heart and effort tonight but came up a couple buckets short against Holdingford in a Central Minnesota Conference battle, losing 63-59. Holdingford was coming off of a pretty big upset loss at home to Pierz 65-52 last Thursday night. The Huskers improved to 17-5 (8-4 CMC) with the win, while the Jaguars slipped to 11-12 overall. Up next: a home game on Friday night against Pierz, who was 5-16 overall going into tonight's game with Maple Lake.

By the way, the B-B-E Speech team had an excellent night in Willmar, with four individuals placing in the top four and one duo team placing third. Unofficially, they beat all other Class A teams in the field and took third overall behind Class AA Willmar and Dassel-Cokato.


Here's the last ticks of the girls' basketball game against Holdingford:


And here's action from the first half of the boys' basketball game against Pierz:

More to follow later. My head's still spinning from a very hectic night! It's great to report that the B-B-E Robotics parent meeting had great attendance, and the team is very excited about their trip to Duluth in March.

Shown is the B-B-E Robotics team's robot during the final testing phase before it was packed in a sealed box tonight in preparation to be shipped to Duluth for the March competition.

Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on Feb. 18:
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 71, Holdingford 54

Central Minnesota Conference girls' basketball scores on Feb. 18:
Eden Valley-Watkins 59, Rockford Area 54
Pierz 71, Maple Lake 70
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 71, Kimball 25

Area boys' basketball scores on Feb. 18:
Melrose Area 85, Benson 72 (Dutchmen win 3rd straight conference title)
Upsala 103, Swanville 74
Maple Lake 60, Milaca 49
West Central Area 50, St. John's Prep 45
Sartell-St. Stephen 64, Willmar 60
Sauk Centre 58, Montevideo 57 
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 90, Yellow Medicine East 60
Battle Lake 86, Bertha-Hewitt 37
Browerville 66, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 57
Morris Area/Chokia-Alberta 68, Minnewaska 57
Canby 70, Dawson-Boyd 63!! (D-B's second loss of the year)
Apple Valley 59, Lakeville North 56 OT
New London-Spicer 79, Dassel-Cokato 54

Area girls' basketball scores on Feb. 18:
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 61, Royalton 59
Melrose 57, Sauk Rapids-Rice 49
Verndale 78, Browerville 70!! Whew!
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 77, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 36
New London-Spicer 48, Dassel-Cokato 38
Minnewaska 70, Benson 40