Believe it!! Headed to finals!

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team is sub-section final bound after ending Kimball's season in an improbable 50-44 come-from-behind win. At halftime the Jaguars led 23-20. They had just eight turnovers through all 36 minutes of the game.

Wow!

They play next on Tuesday in Little Falls at 7 p.m. **Update: the Jaguars will face third-seeded Upsala. The Cardinals (14-13) beat fellow Prairie Conference and border battle rival Swanville 61-52 in the other semifinal game. They jumped out to leads of 7-2 and 14-4 in the opening minutes and never trailed. The Bulldogs finish 15-10.

The game with Kimball tonight had countless fascinating moments, but one stands out from my game notes. With 14:15 left in the second half, Tanner Heinsius was at the line shooting two. A woman from Kimball shouted, "Tanner, you can't shoot!" It was clear enough for the radio announcers to hear her. Tanner missed the first free throw. Then what? He ended up shooting seven more free throws after that miss. How many of those seven did he make? All seven! Including free throws in the final minute that iced the win.

Good call, Kimball heckler!! Can you come to Little Falls on Tuesday and do it again? You could be our good luck charm.

The Cubs end the season 19-9 overall and were beaten out of the playoffs for the second straight year by our Jaguars.

Sub-Section 5A-North boys' basketball scores on Feb 28:
#1-seeded Nevis 57, #5-seeded Pine River-Backus 53
#2-seeded Browerville 73, #6-seeded Sebeka 65 (2 OT!)

Area boys' basketball playoff scoreboard on Feb. 28:
Sauk Centre 76, Pierz 51

Eden Valley-Watkins 65, New London-Spicer 54

#2-seeded Maple Lake, 85, #3-seeded Braham 83 OT

#1-seeded Breck 92, #5-seeded Rockford Area 68

Battle Lake 74, Brandon/Evansville 27

West Central Area 59, Ortonville 56
4th-seeded Annandale 71, top-seeded St. Cloud Cathedral 67 OT
Melrose Area 60, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 39
#7-seeded Paynesville 58, #3-seeded Litchfield 54 !

Radio!

Tonight's boys' basketball playoff game will be on The Train and Smooth Magic 107 FM.

It will start at 6 p.m. against Kimball.

Winning!

The five seniors are a close bunch. They've played a lot of basketball together over the years.

Two big records were broken tonight for Seniors Night! The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team defeated Pierz 70-39 to finish the regular season 18-8 overall and 12-2 in the Central Minnesota Conference. The 18 regular season wins is a new record for the program. The 2007-08 team (17-9) broke the previous record of 16 wins (16-6 overall) in 1994-95. The 2008-09 team tied that record of 17 wins and finished 17-9 overall while also breaking the record for most wins in conference play in a season. In 2008-09 the Jaguars finished 11-3 (third place) in the CMC. That record of 11 conference wins stood until tonight.

At halftime, the Jaguars led 50-20 over Pierz and had accumulated 20 steals. They finished the game with just eight turnovers. The Pioneers (9-17, 4-10) finished seventh in the CMC and enter the Sub-Section 6AA-North playoffs next Thursday at Melrose.

Next for the Jaguars is another home game. They host the playoff opener next Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. The top-seeded Jaguars will host either Swanville or Northland. Those two teams square off on Monday in the play-in round of the tournament. I confirmed today that this is the first time in school history that the Jaguars have been the top-seeded team in the playoffs!

State wrestling updates: Adam Jaeger won by pin and Ben Feuerhake won 13-7 to keep their seasons alive.

...and can't forget robotics!! Here's a glimpse of the B-B-E Robotics team's robot at Duluth.

The B-B-E Robotics team's robot (#4238) is shown ready to start competition in Duluth today.

Don't miss tomorrow morning's Prep sports review on Smooth Magic 107 FM with myself and Brady Erdmann at 8 a.m.! It will also be streamed online at http://www.kmgk1071.com.

Tonight and tomorrow night the lights will be on all night at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper office in honor of Eric Dean, a Starbuck boy who was murdered by his father's girlfriend two years ago today.

Next week I'll start sinking my teeth into officials at Pope County to determine who broke what laws as the incompetence at their Human Resources department contributed to Eric Dean's murder. It was tough reading this today: http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/S3719831.shtml?cat=10151

State update

Ben Feuerhake signs his name after winning the opening round of state this afternoon.

Tyler Bents' and Colby Schramel's seasons are done.

In the state quarterfinals at 138 pounds, Adam Jaeger lost a 10-3 decision to Ryan Keach, a junior with a 29-10 record from Dover-Eyota. In the wrestlebacks late tonight, Jaeger pinned senior Tim Kent of Mille Lacs.


Ben Feuerhake lost by disqualification to senior Nick Meixell (34-3) of Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Area. In the wrestlebacks, Feuerhake got his 30th win of the season by a 13-7 decision win over senior Logan Karver (16-8) of Chatfield.

Two make quarterfinals!

Ben Feuerhake brought the heat and got a pin in the first minute of the first period of his heavyweight state opener. It was a great start to his second straight appearance at the state tournament.

How cool is this!

Ben Feuerhake joins Adam Jaeger as the two B-B-E Jaguar wrestlers advancing to the Class 1A state quarterfinals. They will wrestle at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the Xcel Energy Center. It's the first time since 2013 that two Jaguars won quarterfinal-round matches at state.

Jaeger at 138 pounds got a quick takedown in the first period but trailed 3-2 at the first buzzer. He gave up an escape to fall behind 4-2 just 10 seconds into the second period but battled back. With 41 seconds left in the second period he got a takedown to tie it up and ride a 4-4 tie into the third period. An early escape in the third period put Jaeger ahead 5-4, and as the final buzzer sounded he iced it with a takedown for a 7-4 decision win.

Feuerhake won by pin (42 seconds) in the first period against a Barnesville wrestler.

Here's video from Jaeger's win!


If the guys who beat Tyler Bents and Colby Schramel both win their quarterfinal matches in the 5:30 p.m. round, Bents and Schramel will get a shot at staying alive with wrestleback matches in tonight's 7:30 p.m. round.

Thank you to Brooten Auto Parts for sponsoring this Jaguar sports state update!

State wrestling

Adam Jaeger chatting with head coach Jack Mueller in the staging area after he won his opening match at the state tournament today at the Xcel Energy Center.

At 106 Tyler Bents lost 4-0 in his state opener.

At 138 pounds, freshmen Adam Jaeger earned an exciting 7-4 decision win against Barnesville senior Zac Anderson (34-6) in his opening-round state match. Jaeger will compete in the Class 1A state quarterfinals tonight.

At 145 pounds, junior Colby Schramel lost a 9-1 major decision in his state opener to senior Austin Skillings (28-6) of Frazee.

One more opener to go for B-B-E wrestlers at state with Ben Feuerhake coming at heavyweight. He's ranked seventh in the latest Class 1A Quillotine rankings.

Thank you to the Local Pantry, located along Highway 55 in Brooten, for sponsoring this state wrestling tournament update. Phone # 320-346-2570. They're now offering ridiculously good cheese curds from Redhead Creamery. And yes, they are indeed ridiculously good!!!

A great start!

At Finlayson for the Sub-Section 5A-South quarterfinals, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team has a 9-5 lead with 12 minutes to go in the first half.

With seven minutes to go: 19-9 lead!

Halftime: B-B-E 28, East Central 12. According to my source, the Jaguars have taken three charges while on defense already. This is looking good from 130+ miles away!! Finish strong, Jaguars!!

With 13:45 left in the game, the Jaguars have a 36-16 lead.

From what I've heard, 106.5 FM The Train will carry Saturday night's game in Little Falls. The Jaguars will undoubtedly play Kimball Area for the third time this season. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.!!

Final: B-B-E 63, East Central 47!

Quick update...Saturday's game will be on The Train and Smooth Magic 107.

Thank you to JF Auto Repair of Brooten for sponsoring this Jaguar playoff update!

Playoff game updates

I will post updates as often as I get them here on tonight's playoff game at Finlayson.

Hindsight is perfect...in the realm of radio, we could have gotten a couple games tonight via Smooth Magic 107 and 106.5 FM The Train. As it turned out, both of those radio stations will be in New London tonight covering the Minnewaska / NL-S boys' basketball game in Sub-Section 6AA-South.

In hindsight, it would've been terrific if one of those two stations could've gone up to Finlayson. However, I can understand the stations wanting to make sure they cover the local teams before reaching out to carry our Jaguars.

Yesterday after doing a radio interview for the Saturday Prep Review in Glenwood, Smooth Magic 107 sports director Brady Erdmann said that if Minnewaska's boys' basketball team loses tonight, they will jump straight to carrying B-B-E on Saturday assuming the Jaguars beat East Central!!

Speaking of Saturday's Prep Review, put that on your calendar to tune in at 107.1 FM or http://www.kmgk1071.com to listen to a 42-minute long chat I had with Erdmann about the B-B-E wrestling team and both of our basketball teams. Out of the 42-minute recording, 28 minutes were devoted to the wrestlers. That show will air at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 28. Don't miss out!

THANKS to Belgrade Hardware Hank for sponsoring this sports update!

CHS Prairie Lakes in Elrosa collecting food

CHS Prairie Lakes in Elrosa is participating with the Central Harvest States (CHS) Country Operations Harvest for Hunger campaign. CHS Prairie Lakes in Elrosa, as well as other CHS Prairie Lakes sites in central Minnesota, will be collecting cash, grain, and food donations to support our local and regional food shelves, from March 1-20.

Also at CHS Prairie Lakes in Elrosa, they will host a human foosball tournament on March 14 and will be doing Harry’s Pizza sales as well.

Cool!!!

Stay tuned to the Bonanza Valley Voice for more updates.

And a brief state wrestling tournament update: Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City went 0-2 in the team tournament today at Xcel Energy Center. Pierz also finished 0-2. West Central Area beat Pierz 38-28 in the consolation semifinals and will wrestle for fifth place today at 5 p.m. against #4-seeded Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Area.

Central Square in Glenwood hosts Billy McLaughlin

Click on the graphic for best viewing.

Get your tickets asap before they sell out! This will be a fabulous show. I'd go myself if it didn't overlap with the sub-section speech meet that same evening.

Call 320-634-0400 to purchase your advance tickets for $18 each. Visit the Central Square website for more information at www.centralsquare.org.

Post Prom announcement

After a self-imposed two-day vacation from the Jaguar Sports blog, I'm back in the saddle. Here's the latest.

B-B-E's Post Prom is right around the corner on Sat. April 25.  Post prom is put on by the parents of juniors and seniors.  The Post prom committee is looking for parent volunteers of junior and senior students to help on Friday, April 24 to set up and then on Sat. April 25 to stay up from 11 PM to 5:30 AM to help with games, store, food and other activities.  

If anyone would like to make a monetary or gift donation to post prom please let us know.

Parents of 10th grade students are also welcome to help at post prom and see what we do.  Track concessions this spring will be for 2016 prom so we are in need of volunteers from 10th and 11th grade parents.

Post prom meeting will be held on Monday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Coops Corner in the back meeting room.

Please call or text Beth Kollman 320-815-3274 or Mary Tensen 320-424-2579 with any questions.

Let's get these criminals

Please spread the word and help teach a lesson to these criminals that crime does not pay!!!

Golf position opening

Buzzer-beater!!!

Payton Van Beck not only knock down the game-winning field goal, but he also drained valuable free throws throughout the nail biter of a game.

Here's a video from Maple Lake high school on Saturday afternoon. It does not get any better than this in the world of basketball! You can't beat it...check out the buzzer-beater shot in this video by Payton Van Beck that gave the 8th grade boys' basketball Jaguars a 38-36 win over Kimball Area in the third-place consolation game of the Central Minnesota Conference tournament.

And it helps to let the video reload a couple times on the browser for best viewing.


In the quarterfinals, the 8th grade Jaguars beat Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 33-31 after being in a 15-15 tie at halftime. In the semifinals, the Jaguars met a very talented and tall Rockford team and lost 37-26.

More coverage from this game will be in the Bonanza Valley Voice next week.

Section champion

Ben Feuerhake, a junior, successfully defended his number-one seed at heavyweight in the Section 5A individual tournament.

Tyler Bents receiving his second-place medal in the 106-pound bracket tonight in Kimball.

Tyler Bents became the youngest members of the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team to qualify for the state tournament since Travis Rath (Class of 2009) went as an eighth grader in 2005.

Here's how the day ended up, with the place winners for the Jaguars listed below; state entrants are underlined:
106: Tyler Bents 2nd
120: Josey Tensen 3rd
126: Kaleb Voss 3rd
138: Adam Jaeger 2nd
145: Colby Schramel 2nd
152: Isaiah Gilbert 6th
160: Steven Mady 4th
182: Ben Thompson 3rd
195: Joe Reller 4th
220: Cody Rust 6th
285: Ben Feuerhake 1st 

The opening round of the Class 1A state individual wrestling tournament starts at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 27 at Xcel Energy Center. I am ecstatic about getting to cover four Jaguars at the state meet!!!!! It can't come soon enough.

Snow-Week semi-formal

C.K. Photography was on hand taking formal portrait photos of couples and groups such as the freshmen shown above.

You can't help but be impressed by the turnout at the resurrection of a time-honored tradition at high schools across the U.S. For years B-B-E has gone without a semiformal/formal Snow-Week dance in the winter months. In talking to school staff tonight, we were guessing the school hasn't had such an event since prior to 2005.

Section 5A wrestling

The Jaguars stand at attention during the National Anthem this morning at Kimball Area high school.

Getting pins in their openers today in Kimball were Kaleb Voss (126) and Adam Jaeger (138). Jonah Voss also won in a decision.

Ben Feuerhake won his semifinal match.

Tyler Bents is state-bound at 106 pounds!! Great job!

And at 138 freshmen Adam Jaeger is state-bound!

And Colby Scramel is state-bound at 145 pounds!

Then some tough news...
Josey Tensen, Isaiah Gilbert and Steven Mady will not advance to state.

Another update: Ben Feuerhake joins an elite group of B-B-E athletes with a second straight trip to the state tournament! He is the 285-pound section champion.

Altogether the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team is sending four guys to the Class 1A state tournament!! What a terrific day for the program!! The individual state tournament runs Friday and Saturday, February 27-28.

It's been a wild day. It started at the section wrestling tournament before continuing 16 miles down Highway 55 at Maple Lake high school at the site of the Central Minnesota Conference junior high boys' basketball tournament. Our 8th grade Jaguars took third place out of eight teams. They won the last game on an incredible jump shot by Peyton Van Beck!! Yeah, video will be posted of that later tonight!

Then the day finished up at the Snow-Week semi-formal dance at the high school. A total of 77 students were signed up and in attendance at the dance. What an outstanding showing from the B-B-E student body!! It sure beats sitting at home watching TV. Photos of random couples at the dance will appear in the Feb. 26 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice.

11 wins

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team earned their 11th win tonight at Holdingford by a 49-34 score in Central Minnesota Conference action. Their 11-2 record in the CMC ties the 2008-2009 team for the most conference wins in a single season in school history.

Six years ago the team finished third (11-3) in the CMC and then went 1-1 in the Sub-Section 6AA-East playoffs while finishing 18-9 overall.

Next for the Jaguars (16-8) is the final game of the regular season when they host Pierz for Seniors Night next Friday, Feb. 27.

Getting back to that fan bus for the playoff game next Thursday, the school needs at least 45 people to sign up in order to make the bus feasible. Cost is $20 (gate admission is extra) per person. Contact Jodi at the elementary school office to sign up. You can e-mail her at jcarda@bbejaguars.org and then pay on Tuesday when the office reopens.

Saturday is a big day!!! I hope you're making tracks to Kimball to support our B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team!! Eight Jaguars are seeded in the top three of their brackets!! If you can't make the trip, I will be blogging updates throughout the afternoon and evening on what happens.

Very proud

I was very happy to see a strong response from the B-B-E student body to the upcoming semi-formal Snow-Week dance tomorrow night. Kudos to the student leaders who resurrected this time-honored tradition!

Smelt fry

Mmm! It's as good as advertised at Shells on Main in Belgrade. Don't miss out! They serve until 8 tonight. Their ad is on page three of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

Fan bus for playoffs!

This is a great idea: the school has lined up an option for a coach fan bus for next Thursday's playoff game in Finlayson. I will post all the details later, but you can contact the elementary school office to get signed up. Ask for Jodi.

Buzzer beater!

Hailey Braegelman (right) shown during a Snow-Week Coronation program game on Tuesday. Also shown is fellow basketball team member Mary Dak.

Hailey Braegelman's five-foot jump shot just beat the buzzer and gave the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team a 52-50 win at Paynesville Area last night. Holy moly! The Jaguars led 24-22 at halftime. Braegelman and Katelyn Heinze both led the Jaguars with 12 points each. Now 16-8 overall, the Jaguars travel to Holdingford tonight. Paynesville is 8-13.

Rockford beat the boys' basketball team 72-43 last night.

Area girls' basketball scores on February 19:
Pierz 59, Maple Lake 50
Browerville 59, Osakis 53
Hancock 59, Benson 33
LP-GE 52, Royalton 41
Upsala 49, West Central Area 44
New London-Spicer 36, Litchfield 28
CMCS 74, K-M-S 65
RCW 35, MACCRAY 34
LQPV 52, Dawson-Boyd 50 (4 OT! for the Camden North Conference championship)

This sports update is sponsored by the support of the Local Pantry of Brooten:

Girls win

They won at Paynesville

The boys lost at home to Rockford.

Input requested

Click on the link to read about a special project going at the Bonanza Valley Voice. It requires reader participation!! Check it out =
http://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com/2015/02/looking-back-brooten-elementary-teachers.html

(Video) B-B-E Snow-Week coronation

Here's video from Tuesday morning:


This B-B-E Snow-Week coverage is sponsored by the proud business support of:

Sub-section boys' basketball seeding

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team received the fifth seed in Sub-Section 5A-South today. They travel to East Central on Thursday, Feb. 26 for the playoff opener. Their high school is located in the town of Finlayson.

2015 boys' basketball Sub-Section 5A-South seeding:
1 - Kimball Area
2 - Swanville
3 - Upsala Area
4 - East Central
5 - B-B-E
6 - Isle
7 - Onamia
8 - Ogilvie
9 - Royalton

The only other time B-B-E and East Central schools have met in high school sports was during the fastpitch playoffs when the Jaguars beat the Eagles 9-3 in the Section 5A Final Four elimination round on May 29, 2007 at Whitney Park in St. Cloud.

http://www.eastcentral.k12.mn.us

...and check this out! It's related to a front-page story in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice:
http://goatridge.com/our-people

Snow-Week coverage

This week's Bonanza Valley Voice has over a half-page of Snow-Week coronation photos. They are gathered on page 12 in a color spread.

Video from the coronation will be uploaded and posted on Thursday. I'm still recovering from putting together the 12-pager we have this week!!

Here's the Bonanza Valley Voice photo gallery of coronation (46 photos):
http://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2015-BBE-Bonanza-Valley-area-e/26th-BBE-SnowWeek-Coronation

Here's a B-B-E Dazzlers dance team photo gallery:
http://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBE-Jaguar-winter-sports-1415/BBE-Dazzlers-halftime

Knocked from first

A first-place tie in the Central Minnesota Conference was busted up tonight when the two leaders met in our home gym. The Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles overcame an extremely sluggish start to the first half and went into the break ahead 21-16. The B-B-E girls' basketball team battled and battled in the second half but couldn't get over the hump in a 57-49 loss. They fall to 15-8 overall and 10-2 in the CMC heading into a road game at Paynesville on Thursday.

EV-W's next game is Friday at Rockford Area; the Eagles are now 11-1 in the CMC.

I thought it was a very entertaining and fun game to watch. It was difficult to see the Jaguars lose. I also thought it was not for a lack of effort or desire! Read more about the game in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

Central Minnesota Conference girls' basketball scores on Feb. 17:
Rockford Area 61, HL-W-W 51
Kimball Area 53, Maple Lake 32
Pierz 49, Holdingford 43

That's all for tonight. I have a 12-page newspaper to finish up, and I do not want it to get the best of me!

Radio?

Is tonight's game on the radio? Page four of last week's Bonanza Valley Voice can answer that question.

Snow-Week Coronation

Alexis Amundson is the B-B-E Snow-Week Queen, while Josey Tensen is the Snow-Week King.

Buried in layout of a whopping 12-page newspaper right now!!!! And also pretty excited about tonight's big game. I will post video asap from this morning's coronation.

A Thank You from the coaches

Thank you to everyone who supported the Jaguar wrestling team on their first every Pledge for a Pin fundraiser.  We are grateful for your generous donations and support.  A special thank you to all of you who donated more money than you initially pledged.  The money will be used to support the B-B-E wrestling program.

Head coach Jack Mueller and the B-B-E wrestling program coaching staff

Big week!!!!!

We have a big week ahead of us in Jaguar Country!

Tuesday: home girls' basketball game with first place at stake in the Central Minnesota Conference!

Thursday: home boys' basketball game to wrap up the regular season; it's Seniors Night as the Jaguars host Rockford Area. The girls' basketball team is in a border battle contest at Paynesville Area.

Friday: the girls' basketball team travels to Holdingford.

Saturday: the Junior High boys' basketball Jaguars travel to Maple Lake for the CMC tournament. The B-B-E Speech team travels to Forest Lake for an invitational. The varsity wrestling Jaguars battle for state tournament berths at the Section 5A individual tournament in Kimball.

Who else is excited for this upcoming Smelt Fry at Shell's on Main cafe in Belgrade????? I can't wait!

To my Internet stalker

I am flattered that you can't stop talking about me. A word of advice: stay far, far away from my properties.

You need to study up!!!!! This is real!

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=609.749

Wrestling playoff updates

Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City takes a 17-7 record into the upcoming Class 1A state wrestling tournament that will be held on Thursday, February 26 in St. Paul.

Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, a four seed in Section 3A, blasted fifth-seeded Canby (16-12) in a 45-12 quarterfinal win before falling to top-seeded Minneota 45-13 in the section semifinals to finish 17-6 overall. The Vikings (32-2) then survived a stiff challenge from second-seeded Adrian Area (24-8) and won 32-24 in the section championship held yesterday in Redwood Falls.

Switching gears: have you made plans yet and formed a car pool and asked everyone in your neighborhood to come to Tuesday night's girls' basketball game against Eden Valley-Watkins? If not, do it!!! Let's pack the high school gymnasium!!! I want to see the stands full wall-to-wall and have a couple dozen folks standing at the corners to boot!!! Imagine the boost it would give our Jaguars!!!!!

Did you know? B-B-E is one of eight area schools who broadcast home athletic contests online via The Cube. Read more about it in next week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

On a completely different note, I'd like to share this column written by the publisher of the Morris Sun Tribune newspaper. I have known Sue for close to 20 years and found this to be a very good piece!!
http://www.morrissuntribune.com/opinion/local-commentary/3678541-sues-views-our-community-good-place-call-home

Girls' basketball defeats Hancock

Here's video from the final two matches (220 and 285) of the B-B-E vs. Osakis wrestling match last night:


The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa girls' basketball team has 15 wins in the regular season for the first time since 2008-2009. They got win number 15 last night by a 63-47 score over Hancock after having a commanding 47-30 lead at halftime. The Owls fall to 9-12 overall; they are 3-3 (third) in the four-team Pheasant Conference.

Now 15-7 overall, the Jaguars have their biggest game of the season on Tuesday at home against Eden Valley-Watkins. It's arguably the biggest regular season game since the 2008-09 season when they were last in the hunt for the Central Minnesota Conference championship. Both B-B-E and EV-W are 10-1 in the CMC standings. The winner on Tuesday will be favored to finish as sole CMC champs; the loser will likely finish in second place.

Hey, Jaguar Country, how about we pack the gym on Tuesday? The wrestling team and boys' basketball team are both idle...so let's pack the high school gym!!!!

Sixth-ranked (Class 2A) Maple Lake Irish defeated our B-B-E Jaguars boys’ basketball team 74-54 on Friday night to improve to 12-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference and 23-1 overall. They also clinched a share of the CMC championship with the win; their last loss was on December 5 at Eden Valley. They will be favorites to win their last game of the regular season next Thursday against visiting Pierz. If that happens, they’ll claim the CMC championship outright.

The Jaguars fell to 3-9 in the CMC and will finish in seventh place in the eight-team league regardless of who wins what games next week. They wrap up the regular season with a home game against Rockford next Thursday on Seniors Night.

Central Minnesota Conference boys’ basketball scores on Feb. 13:
Eden Valley-Watkins 65, Kimball Area 43
Rockford Area 64, Holdingford 44
Pierz 77, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 55

Area boys’ basketball scores on Feb. 13:
West Central Area 57, Royalton 35
New London-Spicer 52, Mound Westonka 48
Sauk Centre 65, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 42
Montevideo 61, Minnewaska Area 53
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 73, Benson 65
Bertha-Hewitt 68, Upsala 59
Battle Lake 66, Henning 48

Area girls’ basketball scores on Feb. 13:
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 61, Paynesville Area 23
Albany 60, Holdingford 20
Pierz 63, Foley 42
Browerville 91, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 54
Osakis 67, Swanville 26
Upsala 55, St. John’s Prep 37
K-M-S 68, MACCRAY 38
Minnewaska Area 51, Montevideo 51

Very, VERY proud!

The Jaguars shown with their Section 5A medals as A-C-GC was receiving their championship trophy.

Joe Reller, who is part of a very talented junior class of wrestlers, accepts his section medal tonight.

Isaiah Gilbert at 145 pounds against Osakis tonight; Gilbert won by fall here!

All of Jaguar Country should be immensely proud of how the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team battled to the bitter end in the Section 5A Final Four tonight at Eden Valley-Watkins high school. With the odds against them, the Jaguars found something special throughout their lineup against Osakis and pulled off a very exciting 34-23 win in the semifinals.

In their first section finals appearance since 1999, the Jaguars faced top-seeded and two-time defending Section 5A champion Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. The Falcons blazed their way to the state title match last year and finished as Class 1A state runners-up. This season they vividly remembered barely edging the Jaguars 32-30 at the A-C-GC Quad back before the Christmas break.

Through the first two weight classes, A-C-GC built a 9-0 lead. Josey Tensen at 120 pounds led 5-2 after two periods and opened it up in the third period for an 11-4 decision win for B-B-E's first team points. After two losses the Jaguars got an 8-2 decision win by Adam Jaeger at 138. Isaiah Gilbert won 8-6 at 145, and at 152 Colby Schramel won a 13-0 major decision. By this point, A-C-GC had a 17-13 lead and the outcome was in doubt. That was settled when the Falcons won at 160 and 170 to go up 32-13 and clinch their trip to state. Joe Reller won a thriller in overtime at 195 by a 7-5 decision, and Ben Feuerhake by pin (48 seconds) at heavyweight to wrap up the scoring.

A-C-GC advances to the state tournament for the 10th time overall in school history.

• Here's the Bonanza Valley Voice photo gallery from tonight's wrestling action (90+ photos):

http://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBE-Jaguar-winter-playoffs/BBE-wrestlers-Section-5A-Final

Other area section wrestling scores on Feb. 13:
West Central Area/Ashby/Evansville 36, Barnesville 28 (Section 6A championship, Knights are state-bound for the first time since the 1990s)
Pierz 33, Aitkin 20 (Section 7A championship, Pioneers are state-bound once again)
Pierz 44, Holdingford 19 (7A semis)

Thank you to the Padua Pub for your support of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper and helping bring the sports coverage that our fine B-B-E Jaguar athletes earn and deserve! The Padua Pub, KaDe Shack and  The Red Hen House are all hosting special Valentine's Day dinners tomorrow.

Finals!!!!

The B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team is in the section finals! They won in the semifinals 34-23 over Osakis tonight. The matches are on 106.9 FM KARP.

Update: 152 is in the book and the Falcons have a 17-13 lead.

Update: 170 is in the book and the Falcons have a 27-13 lead.

Bad news: the Falcons clinched the win at 182 pounds. They go to state. Final score: ACGC 38, B-B-E 22. The Jaguars finish an outstanding season 14-5.

The girls' basketball team beat Hancock 63-47.

The boys' basketball team lost at Maple Lake.

Wrestling

22 to 11 B-B-E ahead with 152 in the books against Osakis in the Section 5A semifinals.

Busy night ahead!

The Section 5A Final Four wrestling playoffs start at 6 p.m. tonight in Eden Valley. We need a huge B-B-E crowd to cheer our guys on to a semifinal win over Osakis!!!

Also tonight, the boys' basketball game at Maple Lake will be on Smooth Magic 107.

Halftime

At HLWW: Jaguar girls 41, Lakers 27.

The boys are down 33-31 at halftime to Paynesville.

Final: B-B-E 69, HLWW 51! Still in first place! This was just their third win at HLWW since 2001.

Next update at noon on Friday. I am storing up MoJo for wrestling in EVW on Friday night at 6 p.m.!

Grow the base!

We have over 90 new subscribers in our first six weeks! That's completely unheard of in the small-town newspaper industry. Let's keep that momentum going. Spread the word: for $20 a year, anyone outside of the local area can subscribe to the Bonanza Valley Voice in Brooten. (Locally it's $18)

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