Taking advantage of the home crowd and a night when the girls' basketball and wrestling teams were idle, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team battled through regulation play and an overtime session to boot in a 65-61 win against Royalton. Their backs were to the wall with 1.9 seconds left in regulation, but a banked three-pointer by Hayden Sobiech from the top of the key at the buzzer sent the outcome to be decided in overtime.
To put the final minute into perspective: the last 33 seconds of regulation play lasted over 6 minutes. It was wild.
Ahead 54-53, Royalton got a huge boost with 4.4 seconds left, when junior Braedon Hansen sank two bonus free throws. The Jaguars had just 4 seconds left and trailed 56-53 while needing to move the length of the court just to have a shot at tying the game.
**Here's a six-minute long video that features the final 33 seconds of regulation play:
The good stuff is in the final 40 seconds of that video...SWISH!!!! The three-point shot by Sobiech was nothing but net and ripped the cords as the final horn sounded.
Here's another video from the 2nd half tonight:
That video starts with 11:45 on the clock and Royalton shooting two free throws. They cashed both to break a 39-39 tie. The video ends with 9:29 left and the Royals ahead 44-42.
The Jaguars had a slim 53-52 lead going into the final minute of the second half, but Royalton senior Ryan Vannurden sank a point blank shot in the lane with 45 seconds left to put his team in front 54-53. You can see that play out in the video below...
VIDEO...starting with 2:05 left in regulation:
In overtime, the Jaguars took a 59-57 lead on Kaden DeRoo's three-point play with 2:46 left. The Royals got a three-pointer by Hansen with 2:22 to go to regain the lead. Sobiech then hit a big three with 1:24 left that put the Jaguars in front for good. The junior guard was not done, though, and he launched a final dagger with a made three-pointer with 17 seconds left that gave the Jaguars a four-point advantage.
First half plays out to a draw...
The opening minutes were rough, as the Royals led 9-0 and then 14-6 before the Jaguars righted the ship. B-B-E went empty on the game's opening possession, and Royalton then drained a three-pointer just as their first shot clock period expired. They proceeded to expand that initial 3-0 lead with three unanswered shots in the paint to lead 9-0 with 13:30 left.
Sobiech got the Jaguars on the board with a three-pointer with 12:56 to go. Just a minute later, the Royals extended the lead to 14-6 with a three-pointer by Vannurden.
Across the next four minutes of play, the Jaguars went on a 7-0 run. With 8:11 left, Luke Illies sank two free throws to cut the deficit to 14-13. The last 8 minutes of the first half played out to nearly a draw as the Jaguars pulled into a 28-28 halftime tie.
The Royals played extremely well in crunch situations, and they went 8-of-8 at the free throw line in the second half of regulation to help overcome 2-of-10 three-point shooting. They drained 6 of 10 three-point attempts in the first half. They fall to 5-10 overall and 1-5 in the CMC.
For the game, the Jaguars out-rebounded the Royals by a 33-27 margin. Dingmann led the charge with 22 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocked shots.
NEXT: the Jaguars (9-6) travel to Sauk Centre for a big border battle against the Minnesota Basketball News No. 17-ranked Class 2A Mainstreeters. They are coached by B-B-E Class of 2011 graduate Kevin Kuefler. It will be an exciting night of doubleheader basketball as the girls teams tip off at 6 p.m. and the boys to follow.
Sauk Centre's team had four straight wins coming into tonight's home conference game against Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta; overall they were 12-2 and 6-2 in the West Central Conference, a half game behind No. 4-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) West Central Area.
UPDATE: it's a little hard to believe, but I am seeing a score of this out of Sauk Centre: MA/CA 80, Sauk Centre 61. The Mainstreeters still have solid overall figures: 65.7 points of offense each game and a defensive average of 52.8 points per game.
Sauk Centre's girls' basketball team is 13-3 overall and currently on a seven-game winning streak. They were ranked No. 10 in the latest Class 2A Minnesota Basketball News state rankings.
Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on January 25:
Eden Valley-Watkins 85, Holdingford 54
...Kimball, A-C-GC, Maple Lake and Paynesville were all idle tonight.
Area boys' basketball scores on January 25:
Dawson-Boyd 64, Minneota 55 (the No. 2-ranked Blackjacks improve to 16-1 overall as they are running on jet fuel this season with a 79.2 points per game offensive average; the Vikings fall to 13-5 overall)
MACCRAY 81, Lakeview 43
Underwood 68, Sebeka 63
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 85, Renville County West 53
BOLD 72, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 38
Area girls' basketball scores on January 25:
New London-Spicer 68, Watertown-Mayer 31
Hinckley-Finlayson 65, East Central 46
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 68, Nevis 53
Royalton 60, Kimball Area 47 (a Central Minnesota Conference game)
Holdingford 72, Maple Lake 43 (a Central Minnesota Conference game)
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 49, Osakis 43
Minnewaska Area 71, Litchfield 36
