B-B-E Jaguar Sports extended coverage: Step II: Jaguar girls' basketball slays another opponent

The No. 4-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team defended their top seed once again with a convincing win in the Sub-Section 5A-West tournament. The Jaguars shot back from an early 6-0 deficit to lead 48-17 at halftime. The Jaguars gained the lead for the first time with 13 minutes left in the first half when Allisa Knight scored her first points of the game. She hit a turnaround bucket to give B-B-E an early 12-11 lead.

It was unfortunate to hear that one of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley's main players suffered an injury in the playoff opener. That really hurt WHA's chances. I always say: you want to get your opponent's best punch as you move through the playoffs. The Wolves put up a good fight for the opening stages of tonight's game and played very scrappy, hard-nosed defense. They were absolutely a worthy opponent, and they forced the Jaguars to rise to the occasion. I hope W-H-A is proud of the effort they gave. It is extremely admirable to continue fighting with all you've got, even when most of what you are doing is not working. They played with a great deal of heart from start to finish.

Final: B-B-E 80, W-H-A 29. The season ends for the Wolves with an 8-11 overall record.

Section 5A girls' basketball playoff scores on March 19:
Sub-Section semifinal contests...
Pine River-Backus 56, Browerville 49
Swanville 59, Braham 46 (No. 3-seeded Swanville, now 11-9 overall, earns a mild upset to land a sub-section championship berth for the second time in three years; they were 5-3 for third place in the Prairie Conference this season; the Bombers finish 13-7 overall)
Hinckley-Finlayson 60, Ogilvie 52 (the defending east sub-section champions and the No. 1 seed in that half of Section 5A fall to the No. 4 seed)

Ogivlie, last year's Section 5A runner-up, appeared to be peaking at the right time and entered playoffs with a head of steam. The Lions won four of their last five regular season games to take a 13-5 record into the postseason. They lost tonight to a team that finished four games behind them in the Great River Conference standings. Because of scheduling changes this season, Ogilvie's Great River Conference games against Hinckley-Finlayson were on back-to-back nights in home-and-away affairs on March 8 and March 9. The Lions won both games by scores of 73-63 and 65-53. This shows how anything can happen in the playoffs.

Hinckley-Finlayson takes a 10-10 overall record up against Swanville in the sub-section finals.

Here's the run down in Section 5A...the Section Final Four consists of B-B-E, Pine River-Backus, Hinckley-Finlayson and Swanville. Their respective seeds are No. 1, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 3.

Here's video from the first half, the first clip I recorded:

Next: the sub-section finals! The Jaguars (19-1) will host the championship game on Tuesday, March 23 at 7 p.m. Please pass the word. It will be live streamed as they all have been this season. **The Jaguars will get a rematch with Pine River-Backus in the sub-section finals. The No. 3-seeded PR-B Tigers scored a mild upset by defeating No. 2-seeded Browerville tonight by a 56-49 score at Browerville. This is the second time PR-B defeated Prairie Conference champion Browerville this season, as PR-B won 57-47 on February 4 at Pine River.

**Remember: the boys' basketball playoff game starts at 2 p.m. tomorrow...I'll get the video player posted in the morning in a new blog post.

Also! The wrestling action for state preliminaries starts at 10 a.m. at Long Prairie tomorrow morning, March 20.

More to come much later tonight. I need to decompress. It has been a day. The machinery that is the "State government of Minnesota" is up to all kinds of shenanigans. It is a full-time job trying to keep up to all the shenanigans of the state. It is exhausting.

I'll post more after 11 p.m., when the Brooten Lanes is required to close for the night.

I see that Cromwell-Wright has qualified for their sub-section championship game in Section 7A. They are 14-5 overall and were champions with a 7-0 mark in the Polar League (small division).

Area girls' basketball playoff scores on March 19:

Redwood Valley 56, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 38

Litchfield 67, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 43

Kimball Area 2, Pine City 0 (forfeit win)

Sauk Centre 2, Foley 0 (forfeit win)

Pierz 59, Royalton 33

Windom Area 77, Montevideo 68

Barnesville 54, Crookston 46

Albany 57, Milaca 30

West Central Area 67, Parkers Prairie 51

Hancock 58, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 40

Henning 73, Mahnomen/Waubun 34