STEP VI: HEADING TO THE 'SHIP! (VIDEOS, UPDATES*)

The magic has returned from the 2013-2014 season! Above: kindergarten students at the March 12, 2014 state tournament pep fest at B-B-E high school. These kids are now in high school. Holding the sign are Josie Buckentine and Tiffany Dingmann. Tiffany's cousins are Luke Dingmann and Ashton Dingmann, starters on this year's state championship-bound boys' basketball team.

**AND THAT MOMENT!!!!!!!! Caught on video at The Barn:


BELIEVE IT!

It's been eight years coming! They did it! The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team is heading to the state championship game!

New Life Academy had the ball with 16 seconds to go and trailing by two. They were unable to get a final shot off in the closing seconds, and Luke Dingmann picked up a loose ball with 3 seconds to spare to end the game. The Jaguars won 55-53 in a classic battle that absolutely went down to the wire!!! Two free throws by Luke Dingmann broke a 53-53 tie with 15.9 seconds to go. New Life Academy had previously tied it up after trailing 53-50.

B-B-E heads to the championship game, which is tomorrow (Saturday) at 11 a.m. at Williams Arena against top-seeded and top-ranked and DEFENDING state champion Hayfield out of Section 1A.

ONCE AGAIN we need a huge crowd! Today our crowd was amazing! The student section was absolutely on fire the whole game. I cannot say enough about the tremendous effort by both the Jaguars on the floor at Williams Arena AND our Jaguars cheering from the stands!!!

The Eagles take a 27-4 record into the third-place game, where they'll play Cherry tomorrow morning at Concordia College-St. Paul. The Jaguars are 28-4 going into the state finals.

More to come later. Time to head out. We're heading to Norway Lake to the wake for my aunt who passed away on Wednesday. There won't be much blogging again until after 9:00 p.m., when I can get video uploaded.

**If you're back home tonight, please go to the KaDe Shack for the Knights of Columbus fish fry!! They serve until 8:30 p.m....all you can eat for just $10!!!!

Just after 10 p.m. and I'm back in the saddle. More to come after I review some game stats.

 

**Here's a video from the state quarterfinals that begins with about 55 seconds left in the game:


**Here's a clip from when the Jaguars won on Wednesday to advance in the state tournament:


I see in one of the Class 2A state semifinal games that Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta lost 71-63 to Minneapolis North.

I learned tonight that I have an inguinal hernia injury on my right pelvic/right hip area. Being at the state championship game for me is in doubt right now. It's a long story that I will share another time at how I was injured. The good news right now is that, according to my hospital-worker wife, the injury will not require surgery. I certainly hope she is correct, because I cannot be laid up right now. That would be very, very bad - especially with spring sports right around the corner. It has been a crazy day. Crazy crazy crazy! At this point, worst-case scenario is I cannot get to Minneapolis tomorrow but still will be able to limp into the high school for a welcome-home ceremony.

Game notes from today's state semifinal game:
With 4:30 left, Luke Dingmann tied the game at 50-50 with a rebound shot in the paint. The Jaguars had fallen behind 50-46 with 5:37 left, but they held NLA to just three points the rest of the way!

New Life Academy went 8-of-21 for very solid 38 percent shooting on three-pointers. For the Jaguars, they shot an equally solid 37.5 percent on 6-of-16 three-point shooting. B-B-E was led by 15 points from both Luke Dingmann and Kaden Pieper. Ashton Dingmann scored 11 points, Gavin Kampsen had 6 points, Tanner Shelton scored 4 points, Gannon Walsh scored 3 points and Will VanBeck had one point...although it was a HUGE free throw point that he made Here's quite possibly the single biggest reason why B-B-E won today: the Jaguars got 10 points off of the bench compared to just three points off the bench for New Life Academy. That is HUGE in a state Final Four contest.

NLA's Kollin Kaemingk led all scorers with 23 points, and Maxwell Briggs added 12 points. Next was 6'8" Erick Reader with nine points.

Other game statistics: a total of seven Jaguars scored in the game, while NLA had six players score. Each team had four players play 30 or more minutes each. Game field goal stats: B-B-E went 18-of-44 (40.9%) in the game, while NLA went 21-of-51 (41.2%) in the game. The key stat separating each team was free throw shooting: B-B-E made 13 of 16 free throw shots, while NLA went to the line just twice and went 3-for-3.