Girls' basketball team headed to finals!

The players and coaches were extremely excited about getting a chance to earn another playoff win.

Katelyn Heinze (24) and Megan Weller (40) defend the paint during the final minutes of the first half when the Jaguars pulled away from the Cardinals with a late burst of offense.

For the first time since March 2005, the Jaguars girls' basketball team earned a trip to the sub-section finals after they beat second-seeded Upsala 55-47 tonight at Pierz. The Cardinals (16-12) gave the Jaguars all they wanted, but fortunately there was just enough offense in the final minutes to hold off Upsala's rally that narrowed a 45-30 deficit to 51-45 with just 98 seconds left in regulation.

Tip off is at 8:00pm on Tuesday night for the Sub-Section 5A-South championship, which will be aired on both 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake-Sunburg and Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Our opponent is top-seeded Isle, who holds a 26-2 overall record and beat up on Kimball Area 47-25 in the game preceding the Upsala game at Pierz.

I saw that Browerville (top seed in the North SS) beat Bertha-Hewitt 80-62 in their sub-section semi tonight at Wadena. In the other Sub-Section 5A-North semi, Verndale beat Pine-River Backus 63-40.

Here's more action from tonight's game, this from the second half:L


The Jaguars and Cardinals played through a back-and-forth first half up to the last 2 1/2 minutes. At that point, the B-B-E defense started humming, and that translated into key field goal shots off of the press. With 2:21 left, an Upsala free throw made it a 24-23 deficit, but Kinlee Swanson responded by scoring two layups in the next 17 seconds of the game. Megan Weller went 2-for-2 at the free throw line with 1:37 left, and later with 40 seconds to go Katelyn Heinze scored in a double team on the left block. Then with just 8 seconds to go, Weller knocked down an open 10-footer to give the Jaguars a 34-26 lead at the break.

In the second half, the Jaguars pulled away as the minutes ticked by. With 9:01 left, Swanson knocked down a jumper to give her team a big 45-29 lead. It goes without saying for anyone who was at the game that things didn't go too well from that point on for B-B-E. Luckily they did what was necessary in the final minute to end up winning with a comfortable 8-point margin. From the 9:01 mark up to under 3 minutes left, the Jaguars didn't hit a single field goal. Then with 2:38 left, Alex Evenson broke up the ice with a layup that made it 51-43.

I've got a ton of content to go through from tonight, plus I'm checking out video from the B-B-E robotics team's trip to Duluth and their fantastic finish of 14th place out of 55 teams. VERY COOL!!!

Oh and did I mention that the B-B-E speech team had an outstanding weekend as well? Now if only I had time to write about it and didn't need this thing called sleep in order to function.


Area girls' basketball playoff scores on March 8:
Staples-Motley 65, Melrose Area 32
Sauk Centre 49, Osakis 44 (Mainstreeters led 27-14 at halftime)
New London-Spicer 46, Minnewaska Area 32
West Central Area 37, Battle Lake 21
Eden Valley-Watkins 52, Litchfield 34
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 40, #10-seeded Ashby 25 (Arrows Cinderella postseason ends)
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 66, Rockford Area 43