Granite City Classic and Winter Sports Show No. 9! (VIDEOS**)

I've got four videos posted here on Saturday afternoon. I hope to get more up later tonight...**three videos are being added tonight. One is posted right away on the front end of this blog post, and the other two are at the end (boys' basketball clips).


**Here is my final sports show of 2022:



And switching back to the basketball games we took in over the past two days...
To open the second half of their Thursday game with Mountain Iron-Buhl, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team came out tough as nails defensively and collected two early steals and one blocked shot against the Rangers. This is what they needed after falling behind 44-30 at halftime.

*Here's a video featuring Tiyana Schwinghammer earning a blocked shot and steal:


*Here's Brooklyn Fischer earning a rebound shot in her own miss with about 15:50 left in the game:


*Here's Allie Dingmann scoring from point blank in the paint early in the second half:


In that last clip, the Jaguars displayed terrific ball movement...the type of passing that wins games! The Jaguars continually cut down the deficit from what got to a 19-point spread at one point early in the second half (53-34 deficit). They had it down to 55-44 and later 59-48, but the Rangers kept knocking down three-pointers to protect their double-digit lead.

**Here's a video with about 12 minutes left in the game against MI-B...Abby Berge has a nice play on the left block:


By the midway point of the second half, the Jaguars were still trying to break the deficit down to single digits. Down 66-49 with 8:58 to go after Jordan Zubich hit two free throws, the Jaguars improved their presence on the boards with back-to-back defensive stops. With 8:35 left, Schwinghammer knocked down a "stop and pop" shot from eight feet on a baseline move from the right corner. Just 25 seconds later, she hit again while driving down from the top of the key for a layup to cut it to 66-53. The Rangers responded by Zubich scoring on a three-pointer released at least 6 feet beyond the arc with 7:45 left. I reviewed the tape multiple times and could not believer where she was standing when the shot went up. Crazy. This put them up 69-53. The Jaguars did not let up, though, and Schwinghammer scored on another right baseline move with a shot off the glass at 7:14 to go. Then with 6:28 to go, Berge had a steal and layup with an and-one free throw to cut it to 69-58. Plenty of time left! However, playing to the game's script, MI-B's Hali Savela scored on the arc. Savela later had a layup with 5:10 left to stretch MI-B's lead to 74-58.

More to come. Back to work at the office. Then it's open gym time tonight (5 to 7 p.m.) at the high school! This weekend's open gym nights are sponsored by Dion Birch and his son, Brady.

**Here's a short video where you can watch the end of regulation play yesterday between our boys' basketball team and Cass Lake-Bena:


Watching that basketball dance around on the rim, hoping it would not go in, is something I'll never forget.

**And here's the start of the game! Starter introductions and the first 5 minutes of the game against MI-B:


This blog post is a wrap.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, JAGUAR COUNTRY!! Signing off now on the crazy year that was 2022.