STEP IV: IT'S A REPEAT! Back-to-back! (VIDEO ADDED)

Well, that was FUN! FINAL SCORE: B-B-E 94, Swanville 35. The Jaguars are heading BACK TO STATE!

The Jaguars gather briefly for a quick team photo after winning tonight for back-to-back Section 5A championships.

The No. 4-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team has repeated as section champions! They are heading to the state tournament! B-B-E shot out to a 20-0 lead after six minutes of the game went by. Swanville knocked down a three-pointer right at the 12-minute mark for their first points. B-B-E led 60-18 at halftime. Once the final horn sounded, a total of 14 Jaguars found the scoring column. Abby Berge led the Jaguars with 23 points. She also had nine of B-B-E's 23 steals.

 

The Class 1A state quarterfinals will take place at various locations across Minnesota on Tuesday, March 30 and Wednesday, March 31. According to what I'm reading on the MSHSL website, the teams in Class 1A will be ranked in two separate groups: the four "north" teams and the four "south" teams. I have a hunch this means Sections 5 through 8 will be the north teams. If that's the case, the Jaguars are all but a lock on the No. 1 seed in their half of the eight teams.

That's all I know at this point. Not one bit of rest whatsoever until after that game! Now it's game on! 

The post-game dogpile...that kinda got away from them! No one got hurt!

Uploading more video now. *AND FOR THE RECORD! The live stream that was shot by Minnewaska's broadcasting team has a total of 1,174 views at this point, not quite two hours after the game was over. They broadcast the game in a very nice 1080p HD quality. Props!

Swanville finishes the season 12-10 overall. This is the second time in three years that B-B-E and Swanville have played one another in a championship game. Two years ago, Swanville finished 21-4 for their best season in school history while finishing as runners-up in Sub-Section 5A-West to the Jaguars, who ended Swanville's season with a 66-52 win.

**And here's an exciting clip shot late in the second half tonight:


Senior Jozey Goodall sinks a rebound shot on the left block and is fouled. I was blocked out by the referee at that point when she was at the free throw line. The bucket gave B-B-E an 88-33 lead over Swanville with just over three minutes to go. What exciting reactions by the bench! 

**Here's a 21-minute long video featuring some of the pre-game, the tip-off and then the opening minutes of the first half:


The tip-off takes place just shy of the 7:00 mark in the video.

Section champions so far in Class 1A! (Seven of eight)

Section 1: Houston

Section 2: Sleepy Eye St. Mary's

Section 3: Minneota

Section 4: Mayer Lutheran

Section 5: B-B-E!

Section 6: West Central Area

Section 7: Mountain Iron-Buhl (18-4 overall record)

Section 8: to-be-determined tomorrow night (Friday).

The No. 2 seed in the east half of Section 8A, Cass Lake-Bena, will take on the No. 1 seed in the west half of that section, Stephen-Argyle Central. That section title game is tomorrow (Friday) at 7 p.m. at the REA in Thief River Falls. According to the QRF, CL-B is rated No. 10 in Class 1A, while Stephen-Argyle Central is ranked No. 11.

Other game notes from other northern sections in Minnesota...

Up in Section 6A...West Central Area has qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1998 with a 64-53 win over once-beaten Henning. WCA, 17-5 overall, has now won 12 of their last 13 games. The Knights just squeezed past No. 1-seeded Hancock in the sub-section championship at Hancock on Tuesday this week. Tonight at Fergus Falls high school, the WCA Knights played an inspired brand of basketball to prevent Henning from a repeat trip to state. In the win over Hancock, WCA's Lexi Bright's layup in the final minute gave her team the lead for good. She finished with 11 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals. WCA was led that night by an eighth grade guard, Macy Grosz, who scored 15 points while making four of her five three-point shots. Henning, the No. 5-ranked team in the QRF scale and No. 2 in the final Minnesota Basketball News poll, was riding a 19-game winning streak coming into tonight.

To northwest Minnesota in Section 7A...Mountain Iron-Buhl appears very solid. They avenged an earlier-season loss to Cherry with a 60-28 win tonight in the Section 7A title game. Cherry had defeated the Rangers in a game played at MIB's high school on February 4 by a 53-49 score. At that point, MIB had a 4-2 record. Since then, MIB has gone 14-2 and has a six-game winning streak heading into state.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that B-B-E is a No. 1 seed in the northern group, with Mountain Iron-Buhl the No. 2 seed. Then you'd get the Section 8A winner as the No. 3 seed, and West Central Area the No. 4 seed. This gives us WCA as the state quarterfinal opponent, and I'd definitely lobby for a game at Alexandria Area high school! (Or better yet...St. Cloud State University...but that's all beyond my reach)

That leaves Section 8A...and there's no point to scout either of those teams left standing until we have a winner tomorrow night.

   

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