Basketball teams split (VIDEO)

Tonight brought fans in Jaguar Country a tale of two completely different games.

On the home floor, the No. 8-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team put on another clinic in Central Minnesota Conference action. Facing a dangerous but sub-.500 Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles team, the Jaguars utilized 48 percent field goal shooting and another strong defensive performance while recording a 70-45 blowout win. Leading the way in scoring for B-B-E were Abby Berge and Brooklyn Fischer with 18 points apiece, and Harley Roering was right behind with 17 points (four threes). They are now 7-1 in the CMC and 12-2 overall and basically a game out of first place behind front-runner and No. 12-ranked Holdingford.

The Eagles fall to 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the CMC with their third straight loss.

NEXT: the biggest game of the season thus far, by far! This Thursday, two nights from now, January 26, on our home floor in Belgrade...Holdingford comes to town, and the Jaguars need to win this game to avoid falling two games back in the conference race!! A must-win game! Holdingford's defense is outstanding: just 42 points per game average thus far. Crazy good.

Breaking: in Holdingford tonight, the Royalton girls' basketball team nearly pulled off a huge Section 6AA and conference upset before losing 51-50 in overtime. The Huskers (13-3 overall) remain perfect in the CMC (7-0). Meanwhile, at Paynesville earlier tonight, the host Bulldogs girls' basketball team defeated Kimball Area 45-43 to snap a four-game skid.

In our B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball game, things did not go well at Paynesville. I was chomping at the bit to share this message the whole ride home after I left the game late in the second half. (I had to get back to Belgrade to pick up my daughter.) One big positive thing stood out to me as the Bulldogs were tearing up the floor at the expense of our Jaguars. After every missed bucket or errant pass or just a plain old turnover caused by Paynesville swooping in on one of our passes, our boys hung together. They continued to stick together and support one another as things were completely not going their way. They continued to play hard, give high fives (low fives) and provide one another with words of encouragement. They stood shoulder to shoulder with one another while watching Paynesville's Eli Nelson attempt three free throws with no time on the clock at the end of the first half. There was no barking or back-biting or anything that resembled a team that was falling apart. That is huge. That is very important in my eyes. Of course, getting worked over is tough. This is what we have been accustomed to doing to other teams. Now we taste it, and it is a sour taste!! The Jaguars will respond from this adversity and take it to Kimball Area on Thursday! Home floor...another conference battle awaits.

Final score: Paynesville Area 65, B-B-E 49. The Jaguars (10-3, 4-2) had 6 players score tonight and three in double figures: Kaden Pieper with 20, Luke Dingmann with 11 and Tanner Shelton with 10. B-B-E shot 5-for-17 from the three-point line but were an ice-cold 27 percent overall from the floor (16-for-58...ouch)...Here's the key statistic from my view: the Jaguars were totally outclassed on the boards by a wide margin. Paynesville had 36 rebounds compared to 21 for the Jaguars. Life is difficult when you are not getting second-chance bucket opportunities. The scorebook showed just 8 offensive rebounds for B-B-E, while the Bulldogs snared 25 defensive rebounds. The Bulldogs have won four straight while snapping B-B-E's seven-game winning streak.

*Here's a first-half video from Paynesville:


Early in that video clip, Tanner Shelton had a great look at the basket and put up a terrific shot that bounced out of the rim. It is a bucket that the Jaguars needed. The video clip tells the story: the Jaguars lost not for a lack of effort. They battled all night, but DANG! The Bulldogs were fast. They were "lights out" sharp on the loose balls and on rebounds.

Paynesville's Eli Nelson finished with 23 points. He did not make any threes in the second half, but he knocked down 3 threes all in the final 5 minutes of the first half, which made life very tough on B-B-E's defense. It was a remarkable performance for Nelson, who had lost 64-61 in his sophomore year on that same court to B-B-E and 81-50 in his junior year on that same floor to our Jaguars. Tonight was obviously different. Nelson was one of just two Bulldogs in double figures, but 8 Paynesville players scored overall, and they shot 8-for-27 from the three-point line. The Bulldogs improve to 12-4 overall and 5-1 in the CMC. In the latest QRF rankings, they were rated 34th out of 126 Class 2A schools. Keep in mind: this Bulldogs team lost just 49-41 in Eden Valley on January 13. They also picked up a 47-44 win over Melrose Area, a top team in Section 6AA, on January 16.

**BREAKING: at Eden Valley tonight, the host Eagles boys' basketball team survived a scare from Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in a 41-39 win.

More to come...IN THE MORNING. Time to wrap up my newspaper. I still don't know if I can get it to 14 pages...I will do my absolute best. I really need 14 pages this week. We'll see how my night goes. **Update at 8 a.m. Wednesday: I was unable to stretch the newspaper to 14 pages...we went with a "small" 12 page layout.