Section finals, Step IV: Jaguars fall short of state

The first half of tonight's Section 5A championship in Fergus Falls has played out decidedly against the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team.

At halftime, Menahga holds a 20-11 lead. They have been playing stifling defense all night.

Second half:
With 4:16 left, Menahga is ahead 39-33. They keep nailing timely threes. The Jaguars have been battling and giving it their all.

With 51 seconds left, a free throw by Jenna Dingman made the score 42-39, Braves ahead. Menahga missed the front end of bonus free throw opportunities on two occasions in the final minute, once with 36 seconds left and later with 19 seconds to go. The Jaguars were unable to capitalize either time.

Final: Menahga 46, B-B-E 39. The Braves advance to state for the second straight season; they hold a 29-1 overall record. The Jaguars finish 24-6 overall, marking the most wins in any season in program history.

These are very difficult losses to swallow. And I have seen many of them in section final games across the years across different B-B-E teams. The first time was in March 1995. That month, at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud, our girls' basketball team lost 33-28 to New London-Spicer to finish 20-7 oveall.

I want to state very clearly how very proud I am of our Jaguars and how hard they compete and how they win with class and lose with class. At the end of the day that is what really matters.

I have to also add that I could not have been more impressed with Menahga's performance. They have been playing through a great deal of adversity, and they rose to the occasion tonight. They knew it was going to be war before they even arrived in Fergus Falls. They knew they had to put 110 percent on the court if they were to have a chance at winning. It was an incredibly close game. It was back-and-forth. It came down to the wire. Foul shooting determined the final separation in the closing seconds.

I wish Menahga well in the state tournament.

I told Coach Anderson after the game that "It will happen, you just have to keep trying." She had a great demeanor about her, and that impressed me considering how hard she wanted this team to win. It's a tough loss to swallow indeed.

I am anxious to see if Eden Valley-Watkins won tonight. I don't have time to look so I'll check that out in the morning. I did dream about both them and B-B-E getting to state together.

That's it for my second pit stop...time to hit the road again. I have many hours of driving left to do tonight. I hope all of you get home safely.

Have a good weekend...and ##ConquerEveryDay

**Just after 1 a.m. and thanks in large part to Dr. Pepper and Sirius XM Radio, I made it to my destination with flying colors. I was actually enjoying my drive so much that I felt a small disappointment upon arriving in the parking lot. Along the way I have managed to write about four different newspaper columns in my head...I doubt any of what floated through my head will ever be seen in newsprint.

The first thing I did after parking is check my email. Sure enough, there were the game stats from Fergus Falls. The Jaguars shot a solid 40 percent from two-point range. The Achilles Heel tonight was at the three-point line: 0-for-9. This was not the night to shoot none of nine on the arc. But that's how it goes sometimes. I would imagine that on Tuesday night, Sauk Centre shot poorly from the arc in their loss to Albany. Plus, I just glanced and saw that Albany crushed Pine City 60-29 tonight in their section final, which makes one think that had Sauk Centre defeated Albany - they'd have probably beaten Pine City as well and continued their string of state berths going. (It was four in a row coming into this season; they last fell in section play back in 2014 when New London-Spicer edged them 84-81 in overtime in the Section 6AA title game.)

Another tough score to see: Redwood Valley ended the season of Eden Valley-Watkins tonight by a 62-58 score in the Section 3AA finals. The No. 3-ranked Eagles finish the season 27-1. Redwood Valley, meanwhile, is unranked but takes a 19-8 record into next week's state tournament.

**Below, take in some video from the final minute of the first half against Swanville on Tuesday at Little Falls high school:



Area girls' basketball playoff scores on March 8:
Ada-Borup/Norman County West 66, Parkers Prairie 34 (AB/NCE beat Parkers Prairie by a narrower score of 54-49 on February 9 on the same floor as where they played tonight - Concordia-Moorhead)
Holy Family Catholic 47, Annandale 32
BOLD 63, St. Clair 41
Roseau 73, Crookston 58
Minneota 65, Southwest MN Christian 47
Albany 60, Pine City 29

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