State Final Four lies ahead (VIDEOS* UPDATES*)

It's been almost year since our B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team played at Target Center in the Class 1A state semifinals and championship game. What an incredible experience that was! At the time, if I remember correctly, crowd sizes were limited to 250 fans on each side. This year we can pack The Barn as much as we want to for our B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team! And speaking of fans!!!

FAN BUS INFORMATION:
B-B-E high school is taking sign-ups for a fan bus. Just shy of noon today (Thursday), the high school said that they have six spots available on that bus. To get a second bus going, they'd need another crush of people to line it up. So that's up to what the public wants to do! Contact Nancy Bertram at the high school at 320-254-8211, Option No. 2 for the high school and then Option No. 1 for Nancy's extension.

Let's give everything we can to this experience! Keep it in perspective, of course, but enjoy it while it lasts! We get to be on TV!!! How exciting for Jaguar Country!!!

Click on the following link to re-direct to the B-B-E school's website where you can learn more about the state tournament (short link): https://bit.ly/3ICorgi.

Here's a clip featuring the last minute or so of the Section 6A championship game:


New York Mills had briefly taken a 36-35 lead with 1:07 left in the half...this was after B-B-E had built a 30-19 lead with 7 minutes to go. That was a wild 18 minutes!! B-B-E took a 37-36 lead into halftime thanks to Kaden Pieper's layup with 25 seconds to go.

About the upcoming state semifinal contest: New Life Academy (27-3), winners of 17 straight games, averages 76.3 points per game while giving up 57.5 points a game. Their losses are to Rocori (67-59 on December 30), Maranatha Christian (82-72 on January 4) and Plainview-Elgin-Millville (78-72 on January 22).

Amazing: the community of Hancock, whose school has traveled extensively in the past month for postseason basketball, has shown just one COVID-19 case in the past three weeks. Their girls' basketball team just won the Class 1A state title last weekend. They've traveled all over the map, and COVID-19 spread hasn't overrun their community. Maybe they all double mask over there in Owls country???? Just sayin'!!!

This afternoon I stumbled onto a drive including pictures from the 2014 state tournament. Crazy fun times back then!!! It's been eight years...

Back to present day! Here's a video from the first half yesterday at The Barn:


Remember! Let's BRING IT tomorrow to Minneapolis! We need a huge crowd once again! Click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website for more state tournament coverage (short link): https://bit.ly/3DdgGfQ...that article includes photos from the state tournament trips in 2011 and 2014. Good times!

Class 1A state consolation bracket update:
In today's consolation semifinals, unseeded Russel-Tyler-Ruthton prevailed in a shootout by a 74-71 score over Nevis. In the other semi, unseeded Sacred Heart won 69-52 over Sleepy Eye St. Mary's. I won't have time to look at the statistics on those games until tonight. I'm still reading up on New Life Academy.

This blog post is a wrap.