Basketball teams split

I don't have a final score from Howard Lake, but the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team fell to 1-2 with a loss. They look to regroup this Thursday with a home game vs. Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg. Pierz visits on Friday night. (Final at HL-W-W: Lakers 72, Jaguars 28.) The 28 points is not a typo. It's the lowest offensive output by a boys' basketball team since Jan. 16, 2007 when the Jaguars lost 57-26 at Eden Valley. Interestingly, that year, they regrouped and put up a valiant fight six weeks later when they lost 60-57 to EV-W in the last home game of the season. I still vividly remember both of those EV-W games.

Whether it was their old gym or new gym, HL-W-W has always been a tough place for visitors to play basketball. (Above) Brian Goodwin, then a junior, shown keeping his dribble after being tripped up by a Lakers guard on Jan. 17, 2013. The Jaguars won that game 58-52 for their 45th conference win in a row.

As ugly as tonight's loss was, we can be sure that the Central Minnesota Conference record book will have B-B-E's name in it for years and years and perhaps decades. The streak ended at 70 games. It's absolutely incredible considering that the old boys' basketball record for consecutive CMC wins was 44 games (HL-W-W from 1999 to 2002).

*How's this for irony: the Jaguars snapped HL-W-W's conference winning streak in March 2002 in truly epic fashion with a 63-62 road win when Josh Eckstein put in a rebound shot at the buzzer at Hubert H. Humphrey Gymnasium in Howard Lake in front of about 800 well-traveled B-B-E fans; HL-W-W was the last team to beat the Jaguars in the CMC (Dec. 15, 2009 by a 77-64 score) at their new high school south of Howard Lake; and after beating CMC teams 70 times in a row, tonight the Jaguars fell to HL-W-W at the same location they suffered their last CMC loss almost five years ago.

Adding to all of that: since the start of the 2008-2009 season (six years ago), the Jaguars have lost just four games in the CMC. Three of those four losses have been at HL-W-W's new gymnasium (Feb. 6, 2009 in overtime - Dec. 15, 2009 - Dec. 9, 2014). The fourth on that list was at Rockford on February 20, 2009.

Here's what I wrote about that February 2009 loss: http://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2009/02/jaguars-boys-basketball-suffers-first.html 

Here's what I wrote about that December 2009 loss: http://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2009/12/jaguars-boys-basketball-leads-early-at.html

Oh, how could I forget? The old record, that 44-game CMC winning streak, owned by HL-W-W? To break that streak, the Jaguars beat none other than HL-W-W by a 58-52 score in Howard Lake (yep, that new gymnasium) for their 45th win in a row in the CMC on Jan. 17, 2013. I was lucky enough to personally watch that game.

Whew, this is the material sports writers live for. You can go an entire career without witnessing this at the high school level.

CMC boys' basketball scores on Dec. 9:
@ Kimball Area 75, Pierz 54
Maple Lake 63, @ Holdingford 40
Eden Valley-Watkins 64, @ Rockford Area 54

The traps were working at peak efficiency at K-M-S tonight. PHOTO BY CK PHOTOGRAPHY

It was a different story at Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg tonight, where the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team throttled the Fighting Saints in a 62-33 win. They led 27-21 after a rough first half. The Jaguars (3-1) get a few days off to focus on practice before they host Rockford Area (0-3) next Tuesday for the Central Minnesota Conference and home opener. The Rockets may be winless, but they've had a tough early-season schedule and will present a challenge for the Jaguars. (The three teams who have beaten Rockford have a combined record of 10-1.)

Area girls' basketball scores on Dec. 9:
New London-Spicer 71, #2-ranked Sauk Centre 59 (I never saw that coming; the Mainstreeters went stone cold on the three-point line shooting 8-for-39 on the arc)
Eden Valley-Watkins 73, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 41
BOLD 43, Benson 41
CMCS 47, RCW 43 2 OT
Dassel-Cokato 66, Maple Lake 46
Pierz 55, Upsala 45
Kimball Area 49, Swanville 32
Dawson-Boyd 64, MACCRAY 30
Ada-Borup 75, NCE/U-H 59
Albany 56, St. Cloud Cathedral 35
Ashby 34, Battle Lake 30

Area boys' basketball scores on Dec. 9:
Brandon/Evansville 56, Bertha-Hewitt 43
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 68, Minnewaska Area 57
Melrose Area 66, Benson 53
Montevideo 73, Sauk Centre 53
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 70, Yellow Medicine East 66
Paynesville Area 58, BOLD 51
St. Cloud Cathedral 74, Albany 71 OT
Sebeka 61, Frazee 52
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 56, Swanville 51 OT
West Central Area 62, Osakis 42
Upsala 60, Royalton 26
Battle Lake 63, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 23
Parkers Prairie 62, Henning 37