Jaguars light it up in Section 5A championship

Late in the game, the B-B-E crowd started to all get to their feet as the final minutes ticked off the clock.

Dalon Bitzan knocked down two free throws with 3:07 on the clock for a 77-46 lead.

In the closing minute, Zach Walz (44) and Brendon Loch (32) await a defensive rebound opportunity.

Coach Montbriand signals to the team captains to come get the trophy after the awards ceremony.

The top-ranked B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team avoided the upset bug that took out numerous highly-ranked Class A teams during March Madness after earning an 86-52 win over the top seed from Sub-Section 5A-North, the Browerville Tigers. They take a 28-1 record into the state tournament, while Browerville finishes a fine season 21-6 overall, including an 11-3 mark (2nd) in the Prairie Conference.

It was almost startling to hear the number of upsets that took place just in Class A on Saturday, starting with Battle Lake's shocking 62-59 loss to Park Christian. The Battlers tore apart just about every opponent this season on their way to earning a #2 ranking (just behind the Jaguars) in the state polls with a 27-0 record coming into the Section 6A championship. They trailed the whole game to PC.

Here's the list of teams ranked in the top 10 in the final Minnesota Basketball News poll who are not competing at the state tournament: Battle Lake (#2, lost section final), Mountain Lake Area (#4, lost sub-section final), Southwest MN Christian (#5, lost section final), Upsala (#6, lost sub-section semifinal), Ely (#7, lost sub-section final) and Dawson-Boyd (#8, lost sub-section final).

Mountain Lake Area finished 24-3 and lost to United South Central in the Sub-Section 2A-South championship game. USC then went on to defeat at the hands of Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in the Section 2A championship on Saturday night at Minnesota State University-Mankato. The Falcons trailed 34-31 at halftime before winning 69-61 to advance to state with a 21-7 record. They went 9-6 in the imbalanced West Central South Conference to win that championship against all Class AA competition.

This is a little crazy...in Section 1A, Rushford-Peterson beat 19-11 Goodhue by a 38-31 score on Saturday night in Rochester. That would have been a fun game to watch, with two defenses basically smashing one another the entire game.

And in Section 3A, Canby is going to the state tournament for the first time in 63 years! 

I'm predicting the state seeds (top four) as: 1) B-B-E   2) Rushford-Peterson  3) Maranatha Christian  4) Canby  5) Red Lake