Granite City opener loss (VIDEO, UDPATES)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team ended a nine-day layoff from action with a tough, tall task facing the No. 2-ranked Mountain Iron-Buhl Rangers. The game was part of the Granite City Classic in St. Cloud, this one played at the new St. Cloud Tech high school south of town just off of Highway 15.

B-B-E came ready to play, and they led 2-0 just 12 seconds in on a put back shot by Brooklyn Fischer on her own miss.

The Rangers then heated up the court and led 11-2 with just over two minutes played. The Jaguars, ranked No. 10 in the latest Minnesota Basketball News poll, suddenly came to life with a close-range rebound shot by Brooklyn Fischer, a paint rebound shot by Abby Berge, a three-point play by Berge and then a steal and three-point play by Harley Roering. When Roering canned her and-one with 14:11 on the clock, the Jaguars held a 12-11 lead.

MI-B responded to that by hitting a three-pointer and then a fastbreak layup over the next minute to regain their footing. They continued the surge with a long two-pointer, another fastbreak shot and a three-pointer to forge a 23-12 lead with 11:45 left. By this point, MI-B scored 15 of their 23 points from beyond the arc.

B-B-E kept pace with MI-B, and Roering fed the ball to a speeding Tiyana Schwinghammer, who slashed to the basket to cut it to 23-14. Berge made two free throws with 10:22 left for a 23-16 score, but MI-B then connected for the sixth time of the half from the arc with 10:03 left. Jordan Zubin's fastbreak shot on a three-on-one break made it 28-16 with 9:45 to go. Fischer scored on a rebound shot in the paint to make it a 10-point game, but MI-B proceeded to score 8 unanswered points to go up 36-18. (Ouch)

Allie Dingmann connected on the arc with 6:41 to go, and Fischer later hit two free throws with 6:01 left to make it 37-23. The Jaguars matched MI-B's output over those final 6 minutes and went into halftime down 44-30.

After falling behind 53-34 in the second half with 14:49 on the clock, the Jaguars fought like mad and cut the deficit to 55-44 on a three-pointer by Tiyana Schwinghammer with 13 minutes to go. The 10-2 run started with Abby Berge's 2-for-2 trip at the line with 14:28 left, and Berge then canned a three-pointer just 10 seconds later. Schwinghammer drained a layup just 20 seconds after that to cut the deficit to 12 points at 53-41. After falling behind 59-44, Berge scored in the paint, and Fischer canned a five-footer to narrow it to 59-48.

MI-B's hot shooting then expanded their lead to 66-49 with 8:58 left, and the Rangers kept raining down three-pointers on their way to an 84-62 win. For the game, the Rangers hit six three-pointers in the first half and eight threes in the second half.

GAME STATS:
Abby Berge led the Jaguars with 19 points plus 10 rebounds. Next was Brooklyn Fischer's 15 points and 8 rebounds, and Tiyana Schwinghammer poured in 14 points plus 4 blocked shots, 4 rebounds and 4 steals. Shooting woes hurt the Jaguars, as they were just 36 percent from the floor (22-60) and 23 percent from the three-point line (4-17) with 14-of-25 shooting at the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Rangers knocked down 14 of 26 three-point attempts and made 50 percent of their field goals.

Next: the Jaguars (2-2) face the South Ridge Panthers tomorrow at St. Cloud Apollo at 11 a.m. South Ridge is a team that competes in the Polar Conference and in Section 7A. They were 3-1 going into today's game with Cass Lake-Bena. Last season, South Ridge went 24-4 overall but just 1-1 in the playoffs after suffering an upset 69-63 loss to Ely. Ely had lost to South Ridge 69-38 and then 61-39 in two regular season games.

UPDATE: South Ridge defeated Cass Lake-Bena 50-47 today to improve to 4-1 overall. I also learned that South Ridge high school is located in Culver, Minnesota, which is located due north of Cloquet, or 27 miles northwest of Duluth. Culver's population in 2020 was 252.

MI-B's girls' basketball team picked up their seventh straight win today, and they are now 8-1 overall. They entered today's game averaging just under 80 points per game. The Rangers had three games in November, and between December 3 and December 19, they played six games compared to just one for our girls' basketball team in that same span.

More to come. The boys' basketball team will tip off at 4:15 p.m. today.

BOYS' BASKETBALL UPDATES:
*Update: in the first half, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team holds a 24-12 lead with 10 minutes to go.

**Halftime: B-B-E 51, MI-B 23.

This was an incredible way to shake off what has been a crazy 13-day layoff from action. Their last game was on December 16 in Holdingford.

The rust showed early for the boys' basketball team, and they trailed 7-4 with 15:20 on the clock after MI-B's senior forward Josh Holmes connected on the arc. Layups from Kaden Pieper and Luke Dingmann then put the Jaguars in front 8-7 with four minutes gone. Matthew Walz drove strong to the basket with 13:47 left for a 10-7 lead. The Rangers then scored five straight, but their 12-10 lead was short-lived. B-B-E went on a tear to the tune of a 16-0 run over a span of just over three minutes. (Yes, that's correct.) Scoring in that 16-point outburst were Pieper, Dingmann, Jamison Reed and Hayden Sobiech.

*Final: B-B-E 79, MI-B 60. The Jaguars put their 3-0 record on the line with a 2:15 p.m. game tomorrow against No. 5-ranked Cass Lake-Bena (4-0). CL-B averages around 76 points per game and is loaded with 'pure shooters' who are dangerous from any spot on the floor. Graduation took five players off of last year's team. They have lost in four straight Section 8A championship games, and this season they are on a mission to punch through to the big show, where they last played in 2018.

**Here's my eighth winter sports show, which I just recorded late tonight in Bloomington:


I was "fairly accurate" in that recording, although I was off on one score I mentioned. The girls' basketball team never trailed 42-23...I have no idea where I got that from. The deficit was indeed 19 points early in the second half at 53-34.

Tomorrow's girls' and boys' varsity games will be played at St. Cloud Apollo. It's been eight years since I've been there. I have a sports show uploading, but the web speed where I'm at is super slow! It may not be posted until closer to 10 p.m. Meanwhile, I'm typing up game recaps from both games. 

Area boys' basketball scores on December 29:
Battle Lake 69, New York Mills 25
Melrose Area 62, Spectrum 44
Osakis 43, Annandale 40 (Silverstreaks have won 4 straight since losing the season opener to our Jaguars)

Area boys' basketball scores on December 28:
Paynesville Area 79, Border West 71
Melrose Area 58, Concordia Academy 51
Hancock 102, Kaleidoscope Charter 71
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 91, St. James Area 71
Perham 67, Sauk Centre 40 (first loss of the year for Coach Kevin Kuefler's Mainstreeters after a 4-0 start)
West Central Area 67, Battle Lake 66

NOTE: the K-M-S Fighting Saints boys' basketball team is 6-1 overall after going 2-0 at the Windom Christmas tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday this week; in their first game, K-M-S beat Windom Area 91-80. It has been many years since they've had such a strong start to the season.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 29:
Minneota 66, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 52 (Minneota won earlier this week 57-50 while surviving a scare from winless Minnewaska Area in Marshall; that game ended an almost unheard-of 18-day layoff from action, with Minneota's previous game coming on December 9 against Lakeview)

Area girls' basketball scores on December 28:
Melrose Area 43, Concordia Academy 38
Ogilvie 91, North Woods 84
Sauk Centre 57, Perham 51
New London-Spicer 57, Willmar 43

This blog post is a wrap! I am excited to announce that The Voice is back on Twitter! After a 19-month hiatus in Twitter purgatory, we are back and better than ever!

My Twitter handle is easy to find = @bonanzavalley