STEP IV: LET'S GO TO STATE!

Hey Jaguar Country! LET'S GO TO STATE! What a battle that was!! In a completely packed house to boot!

The Jaguars built a 63-47 lead with 5:05 left in the game when Ashton Dingmann scored from the right block. You knew they were not out of the woods yet, and sure enough, the Eagles stormed back with an impressive 13-0 run. It got wild in a hurry. Across the next 2 minutes and 55 seconds of play, New York Mills made it a 63-60 game.

It was punch, punch, counterpunch over the game's final 2 minutes. The Jaguars took a 67-60 lead when Will Van Beck two double bonus free throws with 46 seconds to go. After the Eagles cut it to 67-62 with 36 seconds left, Ashton Dingmann cashed two free throws with 21 seconds left for a 69-62 lead. Dingmann drained three more free throws in the final 16 seconds, while the Eagles countered with a three-pointer with 6.8 seconds left. That was all she wrote!

Final at Fergus Falls: No. 5-ranked B-B-E 71, No. 2-ranked New York  Mills 65.

New York Mills (28-2) was led by a near-Herculean effort by 6'6" senior guard Tate Olson, who poured in 38 points to lead all scorers. B-B-E's Kaden Pieper, a junior, led the charge for the Blue and Silver with 31 points.

STATE begins on Wednesday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis! Get ready!!!

**Here's a video clip from early in the first half tonight:


Time to get home. **I think we will play on Wednesday afternoon...I will know more in the morning!!!  I'm fairly sure that we will not play at 11:00 a.m. Seeding will be completed tomorrow morning, so by the afternoon we'll all know the full schedule of ROUND ONE!

Ponder this: the Jaguars have now taken out two of the top-five teams in Class 1A...but looming large is No. 1-ranked and defending state champion Hayfield, who will undoubtedly be the No. 1 seed at state next week. Other teams that have qualified for state in Class 1A are Sacred Heart (an East Grand Forks private school), Sleepy Eye St. Mary's, Cherry and Nevis from what I know so far.

**UPDATE: the Class 1A state tournament field is set in terms of who is heading to the big dance! Based just on QRF, the top four teams in Class 1A have qualified for state. In order they are: Hayfield (29-1), New Life Academy (26-3), B-B-E (26-4) and Nevis (27-3). Next come No. 8-ranked Cherry (26-4), No. 12-ranked Sleepy Eye St. Mary's, No. 16-ranked Sacred Heart (26-3) and No. 35-ranked Russel-Tyler-Ruthton. Based strictly on QRF, the Jaguars would earn a No. 3 seed at state.

**Let's go back a couple rounds! And here's a glimpse of the post-game celebration after the Jaguars survived Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg in an epic border battle at Minnewaska Area last Saturday:


The state schedule is not set in stone, but it will involved Wednesday for sure...then either Thursday OR Friday depending on if B-B-E wins their first-round game. They have a potential of playing on Saturday as well!! Let's go Jaguars!!!

**State seeding will be posted in a new blog post on Saturday.