Step III: an incredible overtime win! Jaguar girls advance!

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team won!

56-46 in overtime! I've updated the previous blog post with a few second-half game notes.

It's a FIVE-PEAT!!! Yes, that's right! Five straight sub-section titles!

Pine River-Backus played head-and-shoulders above their No. 3 seed and 12-8 record they held coming into tonight's contest. They traded punches the entire game for 40 minutes of superb basketball.

Next: the Jaguars (20-1) face Swanville in the Section 5A championship game. The game is Thursday this week at a site to-be-determined. I'll get the site confirmed and update this blog post right here in this paragraph.

**AND the site is Minnewaska Area high school! Just up the road at our neighbors to the east!

The Section 5A championship game will be on Thursday, March 25 at 7 p.m. at Minnewaska high school in rural Starbuck. B-B-E faces Swanville, the No. 3 seed out of the east half of the section. I am expecting we'll be able to get more fans at that game than what we are limited to in our home gym. 

Unofficially, Minnewaska's gym seats upwards of 1,500. The gathering is capped at 250, however, but half of 250 is still more than what we have been able to have at our home games during the playoffs.

**Here's video featuring what I believe is the last six minutes or so of the second half. The Tigers tied the game with 53 seconds to go in regulation:


This clip, which lasts over 18 minutes, started with the Jaguars holding a 37-35 lead. Allisa Knight scored on the left block in heavy traffic. It was a huge, clutch shot!

In the other half of Section 5A tonight...

Swanville defeated Hinckley-Finlayson 59-50 in the Sub-Section 5A-East title game tonight. The Bulldogs (12-9) are certainly playing inspired basketball right now with three straight playoff wins on the heels of losing their three last regular season games.

Hinckley-Finlayson, who handed top-seeded and defending champion Ogilvie a 60-52 loss in the semifinals, finishes their season with a 10-11 record.

More to come.

West Central Area ended Hancock's dream season with a 50-49 upset win in the Sub-Section 6A-South finals tonight. The Knights are the No. 3 seed, while the previously-undefeated Owls were the top seed. Hancock finishes their best season in girls' basketball since 2010-2011 with an 18-1 record.

I also saw that Sauk Centre ended Kimball Area's postseason run with a 64-29 win over the Cubs in the Section 6AA Final Four round (semifinals). The Mainstreeters (18-3) now have a date with top-seeded Albany for a state tournament berth; they square off with the Huskies on Thursday this week at Albany.

More to come much later. Time to knock down some trees and print more pages this week!

A HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU TO BONANZA VALLEY STATE BANK, and to FEED CO.!! For being premier sponsors of the newspaper's Jaguar Sports playoff coverage this season! We are in the thick of playoffs, and we couldn't do it without the loyal locally-owned business support that we're getting.