Basketball teams settle for splits at Granite City Classic (VIDEOS**)

With two games each played at the Granite City Classic this week, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' and girls' basketball teams both went 1-1 against very good competition. For the girls' team, they suffered an 85-62 loss to No. 2-ranked Mountain Iron-Buhl yesterday before rebounding with a convincing 85-52 win against South Ridge today. The boys' varsity team won 79-60 yesterday against Mountain Iron-Buhl before suffering a very hard-to-swallow 67-64 overtime loss to No. 5-ranked Cass Lake-Bena.

Girls' basketball recap: B-B-E 85, South Ridge 52:
The No. 10-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team led 43-26 at halftime. After building a 30-16 lead with 5:29 left, the Jaguars led 43-24 with 1:23 to go after Anna Jaeger scored on a fastbreak on a terrific feed from Tiyana Schwinghammer out on the left wing.

The girls were led by Abby Berge's season-high 25 point, 10-rebound effort as the first of four players in double figures. Harley Roering had a terrific comeback today after a tough outing with MI-B as she poured in 16 points fueled by red-hot 4-of-5 three-point shooting; this is her second 16-point night as she also had 16 points at Litchfield. Tiyana Schwinghammer scored in double figures for the fifth straight time this season with a 14-point effort. Allison Dingmann also had a very solid game with 12 points. As a team, the Jaguars shot 37 percent from the floor on a crazy high 74 attempts. Also helping the cause was B-B-E's huge 42-29 advantage in rebounds.

**Here's a video from the final minutes of the first half today against South Ridge:


The clip begins with 2:33 on the clock and the Panthers at the free throw line shooting bonus.

*And here's video from the first half yesterday against Mountain Iron-Buhl:


The video begins with Harley Roering getting a steal and then layup plus an and-one free throw with 14:11 on the clock.

NEXT: the girls' basketball team gets home cooking! Finally! They have not played at home since Tuesday, November 29. Next is a home conference game next Tuesday, January 3 with Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. Also, an extended interview with Coach Anderson after today's win is posted in the previous blog post. You can find it by clicking here (short link): https://bit.ly/3VvnBsh.

Boys' basketball recap: No. 5 Cass Lake-Bena 67, No. 3 B-B-E 64 OVERTIME:
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team suffered an overtime loss to a Cass Lake-Bena squad that runs on high-octane jet fuel after both teams battled to a 60-60 tie in regulation play. The Jaguars were staring at a defeat in the final minute of regulation before Kaden Pieper knocked down a runner with 28 seconds to go. After one minute of play in overtime, CL-B junior guard Dominic Staples-Fairbanks drained a three-pointer. Pieper then slashed to the basket with 2:38 left to make it a one-point game. Staples-Fairbanks hit a floater in the lane with 2:20 left to put the Panthers up 65-62. They hit again in the lane to make it 67-62 with 68 seconds to go. Pieper hit from outside with 38 seconds left, but the three-point deficit stood to the overtime buzzer.

As a team, the Jaguars shot 42 percent from the floor.

NEXT: the boys' basketball team makes the trip north to Ashby on Tuesday, January 3 for a Section 6A makeup game with the Arrows.

This is some fun news to share! The JV girls' team won today by a 39-37 score in overtime against Orono!

Here's a short halftime video I recorded just as B-B-E and Cass Lake-Bena's teams were retaking the court:


*Here's the tip-off of yesterday's girls' basketball game, plus the first couple of minutes of action:


The Jaguars struck early in that video with a Brooklyn Fischer putback shot, but the Rangers then fired away an 11-0 run before Coach Anderson called a timeout with 15:31 on the clock. Whatever was said in that huddle worked out, as the Jaguars then reeled off 10 straight points to gain a 12-11 lead on Harley Roering's three-point play with 14:11 to go.

And today I confirmed with a Cass Lake-Bena coach that the Panthers defeated Northwoods 89-59 yesterday in their first game of the Granite City Classic. I saw scores posted online last night suggesting that CL-B lost that game. With today's overtime win, the Cass Lake-Bena Panthers are now 6-0.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 30:
Crosby-Ironton 76, Mountain Iron-Buhl 69 (I am not sure that is accurate!)
Pequot Lakes 51, Montevideo 46
Litchfield 68, Concordia Academy 33 (Second win in two days for Litchfield)
MACCRAY 56, Yellow Medicine East 39

More to come on Saturday afternoon. I have a mountain of newspaper administrative work to accomplish this weekend!!!

I just noticed that I still have 32 video clips to comb through from the past two days. THIRTY-TWO! Crazy. It was fun. It is always fun, and this work is always worth it! It's also exciting to be back on Twitter! (Thank you, Elon!) @bonanzavalley

JUST FOR FUN! Check out this video (short link): https://bit.ly/3VClhzI. That takes you back to March of 2020! Remember that?