extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. ALL VIEWS posted are strictly and without exception the opinions of the newspaper owner and no one else; they're written in first hand format. Please submit feedback in writing to the address posted above. **This is Minnesota's oldest varsity high school sports blog. We hope to keep it going into the future!
Friday, March 29, 2024
Good Friday worship (VIDEO)
Multiple area churches held Good Friday worship services today, including Lutheran churches, the Christian Reformed church in Brooten plus the Catholic church community.
At Trinity Lutheran church in Brooten, they hosted a joint parish Good Friday service with West Lake Johanna Lutheran church.
Here's the church choir singing tonight at Trinity in Brooten:
A busy weekend is underway. There's Easter bunny-related activities in Brooten and Elrosa on Saturday. According to the 10-day forecast, the snow should be a memory by around April 10. Fingers crossed!!
Holy Week started like a lion with a major snowstorm ripping across the Bonanza Valley area last Sunday and the days that followed. It was something to take in. I failed to heed my own caution, and I scooped too much of the heavy snow. No, I didn't have a heart attack, but I did wear myself out. I over-did it in a big way. I've needed the past two days to recover. It's amazing how having too much energy can get you in trouble!
Here's a video from Trinity Lutheran church featuring the last mid-week Lenten worship service; Pastor Jeanne Megorden is providing her sermon:
Maundy Thursday worship services were held across the area tonight. We had a nice turnout of 36 worshipers at West Lake Johanna Lutheran church in Gilchrist Township. There was room for much more, though. I hope you can get to at least one worship service this weekend. Church will make your life better. No one goes to church and goes home saying, "Gee, whiz, I shouldn't have gone to church."
Here's another video from the Belgrade Lions chili feed on March 16 at the VFW:
I finally updated the Bonanza Valley Voice website. You can see what's there at http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. It's time to call it a night. I have a radio show to get to tomorrow morning in Glenwood. We should be on by 9:30 a.m. You can tune in via the radio at 107.1 FM or go online to listen to us at https://www.kmgk1071.com.
The Bonanza Valley area got a full dose of "heart attack" snow on Sunday night and Monday. I don't have much of an idea of what fell altogether in the last 24 hours, but it was wet and heavy. This is the type of snow that you shovel for 5 minutes, and then you need to take at least a 5 minute break. I walked to and from the office at least 5 times today, and a sixth trip to downtown Brooten by foot was for tonight's city council meeting.
This was a rare day where our vehicles never left the garage! For that, I am grateful. As of now anyway, it appears that "Snowmageddon" has been a bust locally. I don't think we've surpassed 10 inches of snowfall in this current stretch.
At B-B-E schools, the Jaguar Kids Connection closed at 2:30 p.m. today due to the road conditions. Tonight, Superintendent Walsh announced that they will have a 2-hour late start tomorrow, Tuesday, March 28. That's where things stand right now.
Important Tuesday morning updates: at around 7 a.m. today, B-B-E schools announced that today will become an e-Learning day with remote school taking place. The rural roadways have very poor visibility right now, and even where they've been plowed, the wind is blowing some roads shut. Travel safely today! Be SMART!
At The Voice, I expect to be in and out of the office all day. I don't expect to have the office open continuously during regular business hours (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), but I will forward the office number to my cell phone in order to be reached quickly that way: 320-346-2400. This is going to be another rough looking newspaper, but I have every expectation to restore it to the normal 12-page layout. Fingers crossed!!
The snow is falling (VIDEOS) and school is canceled for Monday
By mid-morning today, the snow started to fall across the Bonanza Valley area. A number of churches had already canceled worship services for today, including Big Grove, Crow River and West Lake Johanna Lutheran churches. I expect that later today, an announcement will be made regarding classes tomorrow at B-B-E schools.
Right now I'm going to pull up the Grace Lutheran church Palm Sunday worship, which was held this morning at 9 a.m. in Belgrade. You can watch the service by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wHFzWDvE1s. As of 11 a.m., it has 14 views.
The Sunburg Fire Department and Ambulance Service held a successful spring ham and turkey bingo last night at the fire hall. It drew a crowd of close to 140 people. This is an important fundraiser for their organizations.
Here's a video from last night in Sunburg:
Here's a video from the final blackout game played last night in Sunburg. The winner was really excited! As you will see at the end:
It goes without saying now that spring sports will be on at least a two-day pause. I expect indoor practices to resume later this week for golf, track and field, fastpitch and baseball. Currently, a movement is underway to rebuild the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team, and they are on the cusp of getting a fourth player signed up. The team, made up of just seventh graders and one eighth grader, will complete in the junior high level.
B-B-E has not had its own girls' golf team since the 2019 season. That is a long, tough drought. It is time to put that to an end!
This weekend I learned some exciting news out of the health care industry relating to how the government acted in 2020 and 2021. The exciting, actually stunning news is that the government admitted they were liars. This is news for the Bonanza Valley Voice website and not this blog. What I want to comment on is how exciting it is to utilize modern technology and the connections anyone on earth can make via the Internet to access information and hear first-hand from important and powerful people. In this specific case, I'm speaking about Dr. Mary Talley Bowden of Texas, who joined two fellow doctors and sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). From a common man's perspective, we can go on and on about the ills of modern technology. That much is obvious. We also should celebrate the use of modern technology as we utilize it to become smarter and more informed about current events. Something as simple and easy as this Jaguars Sports blog, which was first used in October 2006 for the football and volleyball playoffs, showcases the use of technology to quickly and easily get information out to the public.
**Sunday night announcement: B-B-E schools has announced that the campuses will be closed on Monday with the exception of the Jaguar Kids Connection day care in Brooten. For K-12 students, they get their first bona fide snow day of the 2023-2024 school year...and winter's not done yet!
We have another very busy weekend to get through before Snowmageddon arrives on Sunday! On Saturday morning, the Belgrade Commercial Club held their annual Easter Egg hunt at the high school parking lot. The B-B-E Cub Scouts Pack No. 667 held a woodworking workshop at the Brooten American Legion. Tonight in the southern part of the Bonanza Valley area, the Sunburg Fire Department and Ambulance will hold their spring Ham and Turkey bingo starting at 7 p.m. at the community center/fire hall.
In light of the forecast, the St. Francis de Sales Catholic church pancake supper has been cancelled for Sunday. They could not risk bringing people out for that always-popular event, especially senior citizens who should not be driving or walking in a snowstorm. Generally, they serve upwards of 1,000 people, which means it would be a tremendous amount of food to risk not being put to use.
Today the B-B-E Speech team concludes their regular season with a short trip to Melrose Area high school. It is exciting to see the success they've had this season in spite of the small number of students who are in this activity. This is an area where parents have got to start stepping up and being parents and getting more kids into speech. I can't emphasize how important it is that our students graduate from B-B-E with the ability to properly function in both interview settings and in the general workforce! If you haven't noticed: the ability for children to properly communicate with others and with adults gets worse by the day in America.
At the Class 1A state boys' basketball tournament today...
West Central Area lost 64-51 to Nevis to finish in fourth place. In the state title game, Cherry defeated Fertile-Beltrami 78-40. In the consolation championship game, Heritage Christian Academy defeated Russel-Tyler-Ruthton 63-62.
R-T-R had a magnificent playoff run after being ranked No. 30 in the March 11 QRF rankings and finished 24-9 overall. The Knights finished tied for third place with Hills-Beaver Creek with a 14-4 record in the Red Rock Conference.
Saturday night update...it's worth noting that the snow forecast has already tapered off quite a bit for Sunday. Now it shows 1 to 3 inches during the day and then 5 to 8 inches on Sunday night. Monday is showing 3 to 5 inches during the day and 1 to 3 over night. There's essentially no additional snow coming in the forecast on Tuesday, but the winds are going to howl. I expect Tuesday to be a no-travel day. If you add up that forecast, it looks like as little as 10 inches of snow overall but as much as 21 inches if it packs the biggest punch that the forecast says.
The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website has been updated for this week. One of the web articles featured includes video from the St. Patrick's Day parade in Padua last Sunday. Click on over and check it out: http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. Another web article features additional coverage of the Belgrade Lions chili cook-off contest.
At the Class 1A state boys' basketball tournament today, the West Central Area Knights defeated Heritage Christian Academy 64-53 to advance to the Final Four with a 28-3 overall record. Their lead swelled to as many as 19 points in the quarterfinal win. They will face No. 2-seeded and Section 8 champion Fertile-Beltrami (26-6) in the semifinals at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) at Williams Arena. Fertle-Beltrami defeated Section 1A champion Goodhue 64-57 in their quarterfinal game. The Goodhue Wildcats were a Cinderella team to the big show and finished 18-14 overall. They were rated No. 25 in the final QRF state rankings.
The Bonanza Valley area received between 3 and 5 inches of fresh snow tonight. I estimate it was between 3 and 4 inches in Brooten. Tomorrow at the crack of dawn I leave town to Rochester Mayo for a doctor's appointment with my oldest daughter. It will be an interesting drive!
**Don't forget! Friday! The B-B-E Knights of Columbus will hold their final fish fry fundraiser of this Lenten season. They serve at the KaDe Shack from 5 to 7:30 p.m. All you can eat!!
At the state tournament today...
In Class 1A, Cherry defeated Nevis 76-58 in a battle of heavyweights in the state semis.
In the other Class 1A state semifinal, Fertile-Beltrami is dominating West Central Area in the third overtime session at Williams Areana. It has been one of the wilder basketball games I've seen in my life. With 30 seconds to go in the third overtime, Fertile-Beltrami holds an 81-75 lead. They have missed just one free throw in the third overtime period. Final: Fertile-Beltrami 84, WCA 75 in triple overtime! WCA simply got beat in the final overtime period. Their field goal shots were falling short down the stretch.
This week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper will feature some remarkable news for the city of Brooten. Some tremendous, positive turn of events are taking place that everyone can feel good about. The newspaper hits the newsstands on Wednesday afternoon, when you can read all about it!
Speaking of good news...the Belgrade Lions hosted an incredible chili feed where they had turnout break what they saw in 2022 and 2023 for this event. The chili cook-off was held on Saturday at the Belgrade V.F.W., and additional reporting will come in this week's Voice.
Here's a video recorded near the end of the event:
Right before the awards were announced, the Belgrade Fire Department members who were attending the event had to abruptly leave for a fire call.
Boys' basketball subsection finals, robotics at Grand Forks (VIDEOS*)
A robotics video was posted below on this blog post on Monday.
Here I'll get more videos posted on Sunday. I've been busy getting caught up from the past week of activities. I am finally done uploading all the videos recorded at Grand Forks last weekend. Remember! There's the Brooten Ambulance pancake breakfast, and the Padua Pub will host their second day of St. Patrick's Day weekend activities throughout the day Sunday. The parade in Padua starts at 1 p.m. sharp.
Here's action from the first half of Wednesday night's basketball game:
As I wrote in the last blog post, West Central Area's boys' basketball team is heading to the state tournament for the first time in school history. The Knights beat Ada Borup-West 60-56 last night (Friday) in Fergus Falls to claim the Section 6A title. Over the weekend, the Knights earned the No. 2 seed at the state tournament, which is quite noteworthy. Cherry is the top seed in Class 1A, while Fertile-Beltrami is the No. 3 seed, Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey is the No. 4 seed and Nevis is the No. 5 seed. WCA tips off in their quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 21 at Williams Arena against unseeded Heritage Christian Academy.
**Here's action from the second half in the subsection finals:
I've got part of the robotics story that was published in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper posted in a web article on the newspaper website. It includes a video from Saturday at the Alerus Center last weekend: Voice robotics story.
Here's the first match of Saturday in Grand Forks a week ago:
As I wrote in The Voice last week, it was really a sight to take in to witness the robotics team recover from multiple mechanical issues that hampered the cause on Friday. They finished strong and have much to be proud of with how they performed under pressure! That's what matters.
Girls' basketball state tournament - and a busy weekend locally!
At the Class 1A state girls' basketball tournament today, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart defeated Underwood 66-49 in the third-place game. In the consolation championship, Mayer Lutheran leveled Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 70-38 to take fifth place.
In the state title game, top-seeded Goodhue is holding a 39-29 halftime lead over defending state champion Mountain Iron-Buhl. Goodhue Wildcats senior Elisabeth Gadient, who surpassed 2,000 points in her career yesterday in the semifinals, leads the way out of all players with 20 points. The Wildcats (27-5) shot an insane 7-of-15 from the three-point line. Gadient's final made three-pointer of the half was launched at least 5 feet beyond the arc at the top of the key.
Final: Goodhue 70, Mountain Iron-Buhl 65. This was MI-B's second straight appearance in the state title game and fourth straight trip to the state tournament.
Last night in the Section 6A finals, West Central Area's boys' basketball team defeated Ada-Borup West 60-56 to advance to the Class 1A state tournament for the first time in school history. The Knights are 27-3 overall.
In 2022, the Knights finished as runners-up in Sub-Section 3AA-North to Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in a 22-5 season. A year earlier in the pandemic season, the Knights went 15-5 and were runners-up in Sub-Section 6A-South behind Hancock; they lost in the finals in overtime, and the Owls went on to take second at the state tournament. Both teams shared the Pheasant Conference title in the regular season.
On March 12, 2020, the WCA Knights played in the Section 6A finals against Henning and lost 57-45. The next day, the world lost its collective mind as governments across the globe took the bait from China and started implementing China-like COVID measures that in some cases lasted two years or more. Here in Jaguar Country, we ditched nearly all COVID measures on May 14, 2021 while holding a mask-free Class of 2021 graduation in the high school gymnasium with a packed house!
On the home front...
Tonight, I encourage everyone to attend the Belgrade Lions chili cook-off! It runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Belgrade V.F.W., and chili will be offered until it runs out. I would arrive between 5:30 and 6:30 to make sure you get enough chances to try each chili. It is a do-not-miss event! Tomorrow we've got the Brooten Ambulance pancake breakfast (8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Brooten American Legion) plus the St. Patrick's Day parade in Padua at 1 p.m. Also! This entire weekend, the Padua Pub will be offering two days of St. Patrick's Day fun! Read more about that on page 12 of this week's Voice or by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/ltzDQ.
Tiyana Schwinghammer's team will tip-off at about 2:25 p.m. in the NJCAA national tournament third-place game. After tip-off...Schwinghammer has 6 early points while her squad holds a 9-6 lead in the first quarter. Through 6 minutes in the first quarter...the game is tied 13-13, and Schwinghammer has 8 points. An incredible, tough baseline shot by Schwinghammer tied the game at 15-15 with 1:40 left in the first quarter; she now has 10 points.
In the final seconds of the first quarter, Schwinghammer attempted an off-balance paint shot as time was about to expire and was fouled. She proceeded to knock down both free throws, getting her to 12 points and making the first quarter score as follows: Cedar Valley of Dallas 19, Northland 17.
In the second quarter...Cedar Valley holds a 25-19 lead.
Bang! Bang! Back-to-back three-pointers by Northland's Emma Osborne has lifted the Pioneers on top 27-25 with 4:41 to go in the second quarter.
After trailing 25-19 early in the second quarter, Northland has gone on a tear with a 19-6 run that's put them ahead 38-31 at halftime. Schwinghammer is leading the way with 17 points. The Pioneers took 7 fewer shots than the Suns, but the Pioneers are shooting 50 percent from the floor. The Suns have 13 points off of turnovers compared to just 5 for Northland.
After three quarters of play...Northland now holds a 60-38 lead. Final: Northland Community and Technical College 79, Cedar Valley Dallas 64. Schwinghammer led her team with 21 points. The Pioneers finish the season 24-6 overall in an incredible year after they missed out on nationals a year ago. This was Northland's 13th overall appearance in the NJCAA national tournament.
Back to state tournament news...the Albany Huskies girls' basketball team played a magnificent game against No. 1-ranked Providence Academy in the Class 2A state title game today. The Lions, however, won 81-78 to claim their third straight state championship. The Huskies, who finish 30-2 overall, had defeated two other powerhouse private school programs to get to the state finals (Rochester Lourdes and Minnehaha Academy)...this was a rematch of last year's Class 2A state title game, which Providence Academy won 70-64. In the 2022 state tournament, Providence Academy beat Albany 55-48 in the state semifinals before edging out Fergus Falls 55-53 for the state title. In the 2021 COVID state tournament, Providence Academy lost to Albany 57-43 in the state title game. Back in 2020, Albany lost 54-38 to Sauk Centre in the Section 6AA championship. Sauk Centre then lost twice at the COVID-shortened state tournament before everything was shut down the following day - Friday, March 13, 2020. Do you remember that day? I do.
Sub-Section 6A-South finals, NJCAA Final Four updates (VIDEOS)
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team battle their way to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship game for the third straight season. Overall, they have played in a sub-section championship game every season since 2018. Under Coach Chris Anderson, the Jaguars have missed out on the subsection finals just one time (2017). Unfortunately, an untimely injury to junior Hayden Sobiech put a huge damper on the game, even though the Jaguars fought with it the whole way and were right there until the end.
Here's the starter introductions, tip-off and the opening minutes:
The Jaguars led 8-2 out of the gates with a fast start. The Knights took over towards the end of the first half, however, as their pressure got to the Jaguars in the last few minutes.
Here's a video featuring the final minute of the first half:
More to follow.
For those who want to watch Tiyana Schwinghammer's NJCAA Final Four game tonight in the national tournament, you can find the stream here: https://www.njcaa.org/network/live.
NJCAA National Tournament Final Four updates... In the first half of the NJCAA semifinals at Rochester's Regional Sports Center...the Minnesota West Bluejays have gone on tear and hold a 33-14 lead over Northland Community and Technical College with just over 6 minutes to go before halftime. At halftime: MN West 38, Northland 27. The Pioneers scored 6 unanswered points in the final 90 seconds to draw within 11 before the break. Tiyana Schwinghammer drained a driving layup just at the buzzer to get her team to 27.
After initially playing even, the Pioneers have fallen behind 46-29 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter. With 1:19 left in the third...MN West has a 52-39 lead.
Fourth quarter update...with 4:32 left in the game, the Bluejays are ahead of the Pioneers 57-48. They are in a media timeout. Final score: Minnesota West 68, Northland 55; the Pioneers were unable to shoot well enough to overtake the Bluejays. They spent a great deal of energy and emotion to claim the quarterfinal win yesterday over Anoka Ramsey, and that was evident in their shooting woes today. Tiyana Schwinghammer played 32 minutes and scored a team-high 19 points to go with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots. The Northland team looks to regroup tomorrow to end the season with a win in the NJCAA third-place game. Tip-off in Rochester is at 2 p.m.
Girls' basketball state tournament updates...Walker-Hackensack-Akeley defeated Fosston 58-52 in overtime in the Class 1A consolation semifinals today. In the championship semis, Goodhue defeated Underwood 63-53, and Mountain Iron-Buhl won 69-50 against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. In the Class 2A consolation championship this afternoon, New London-Spicer lost 45-38 to Rochester Lourdes.
The W-A-H Wolves, champions of Section 5A, will play in the Class 1A consolation (fifth place) championship tomorrow at 8 a.m. against Mayer Lutheran. That game will be held at Concordia College in St. Paul.
National quarterfinals! Goes down to the wire (VIDEO)
At halftime, the Northland Technical and Community College Pioneers women's basketball team is in a 26-26 tie with the Anoka Ramsey Rams. This game is one of the NJCAA Division III national tournament quarterfinals. It has been an outstanding game mostly with halfcourt offensive sets. The Pioneers led 11-8 midway into the first quarter, but the Rams charged in front 16-11. The Pioneers then fought back, and a step back buzzer-beating three-pointer by Northland's Josie Iverson lifted her team on top 18-16 at the quarter break. Tiyana Schwinghammer scored the first bucket for her team, and she's had some great defensive plays to frustrate the Anoka Ramsey offense in the paint.
In the third quarter...with 4:08 to go during a media timeout, the Rams are holding a 38-28 lead. They have come alive with a 7-0 run in a span of just 2 minutes of the game. Overall, going back into the second quarter, Anoka-Ramsey is on a 15-2 run as they have at least for now taken over the game. Update: with 70 seconds left in the third, Anoka-Ramsey holds a 40-33 lead. At the end of three quarters: Anoka-Ramsey 42, Northland 37.
In the fourth quarter...the Rams hold a 47-43 lead with just over 5 minutes to go. At stake is a berth in the Final Four round of the NJCAA Division III tournament.
FINAL: Northland 54, Anoka-Ramsey 53. Tiyana Schwinghammer's three-point play in the final 3 seconds of the game won it for the Pioneers! It was absolutely crazy. One of the wildest finishes to a basketball game I've ever seen.
Northland had to overcome a 50-43 deficit with 4:46 left in the fourth quarter. Up next for Northland: a national tournament semifinal game against Minnesota West of Worthington tomorrow back in Rochester, Minnesota. Tip-off for the Final Four game is 5 p.m.!
*Here's a not-so-hot video recorded of a replay of the buzzer-beating game-tying field goal by Schwinghammer:
More to come.
In Section 3AA...the championship game is being played tonight in Marshall. At halftime, the Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta Tigers boys' basketball team holds a 29-27 lead against Jackson County Central. Out of the 10 starters between both teams, just one is a senior. JCC features an all-underclassmen starting lineup.
Final score: Jackson County Central 67, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 52. The Tigers finish 20-10 overall.
Class 1A state girls' basketball quarterfinal scores on March 14:
Goodhue 63, Mayer Lutheran 37 (Goodhue is the top seed)
Underwood 64, Southwest MN Christian 52
Mountain Iron-Buhl 71, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 36
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 72, Fosston 35
In the Class 2A state tournament consolation bracket, New London-Spicer defeated Perham 54-41.
Step III: Jaguars go all out, wire-to-wire, in one-bucket championship loss (VIDEO)
It is cliche, but it rings true tonight: this game was not for the faint of heart.
Against a team that boasts some of Class 1A's best guard play and passing game, the underdog B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team faced every possible punch that No. 3-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) West Central Area had for them. For 36 minutes, the Jaguars did not budge one inch as warriors through a neck-and-neck contest. After the Knights led by as many as 9 points and the Jaguars as many as 4 points, top-seeded WCA prevailed by a 71-68 score to move within one win of the state tournament.
**Here's a video from before the game and ending after tip-off:
The Jaguars started out red hot as Luke Illies hit a shot near the rim on an inbounds pass just 14 seconds after tip-off. Luke Dingmann then hit a cleanup shot with just under 1 minute played, and Illies scored on a coast-to-coast layup for a 6-0 lead with 16:50 left. The Knights got on the scoreboard with a layup 14 seconds later, but a cleanup shot 16 seconds after that bucket by Kaden DeRoo put the Jaguars in front 8-2.
Across the next 4 1/2 minutes of play, the Knights went on a 7-0 run. They took their first lead of the game with 11:43 left on a three-pointer by Cam Anderson. Just before that shot, the Jaguars were dealt a huge blow when junior guard Hayden Sobiech went down with a knee injury. He was taken from the gym by two trainers to receive medical care and only able to return to the gym with the use of crutches.
Multiple lead changes and ties followed, and DeRoo's 12-footer with 4:48 left gave the Jaguars a 20-19 lead. WCA scored 5 straight points before Illies scored with 2:46 left. The Knights then expanded a 24-22 lead to 29-22 with 91 seconds to go.
At halftime, WCA held a 33-25 lead. B-B-E was led by 10 points from Luke Illies and seven from Kaden DeRoo.
WCA got to the foul line just 15 seconds into the second half and made one of two shots to make it a 34-25 lead. Josh Walstrom knocked down two huge three-pointers across a two-minute span, and with 15:33 left his triple brought the Jaguars to a 37-33 deficit. Later, with 11:42 left, Illies scored on a coast-to-coast layup to bring them within one, down 44-43. Dingmann's pullup three-pointer with 11:11 to go gave the Jaguars their first lead of the second half at 46-44. Five lead changes followed across the next four minutes, with WCA taking a 54-53 lead on a paint shot with 7:55 left. Dingmann tied the game at 59-59 with a five-footer in the lane, and he put the Jaguars in front 62-59 with a three-pointer with 4:52 left.
With 4:05 to go in the game, sophomore reserve Taylor Pieper knocked down a left corner three-pointer for a 65-61 lead. Scoring was difficult from that point on. Out of a timeout, the Knights scored on an alley-oop pass to the rim with 3:57 left. A three-pointer with 3 minutes to go lifted the Knights on top 66-65.
WCA (26-3) has now won 16 straight contests. To say that WCA is stacked goes without saying: they returned four starters from last year's team. Senior sharpshooter Cam Anderson missed most of his junior season with an injury after he was an All-Pheasant Conference player during his sophomore season. Just how good is their guard play? It was good enough that they were able to win the rugged West Central Conference despite being outsized on most nights in the league. Overall, WCA's lineup features six seniors.
Both teams drained nine three-pointers, but ultimately, a 5-for-11 performance at the free throw line led to B-B-E's demise. Both teams had three players in double figures. Scoring for the Jaguars: Luke Dingmann 19, Kaden DeRoo 18, Luke Illies 15, Josh Walstrom 8, Taylor Pieper 6, Lance Radermacher 2.
A big factor in how the game stayed close was B-B-E's large advantage on the boards: 32 rebounds compared to 23 by the Knights. For WCA's semifinal win against Border West, they out-rebounded the Buccaneers 39-25.
B-B-E finishes 20-9 in their seventh straight appearance in a sub-section championship game. I'm back home now in the living room easy chair, taking a breather! We have had another outstanding winter sports season in Jaguar Country. I could not be prouder!!! In B-B-E boys' basketball history, the Jaguars have played in 20 sub-section championship games starting in 1992. The very first season of Jaguar basketball was 1988-1989.
In the Sub-Section 6A-North championship, No. 12-ranked Ada-Borup West stopped No. 4-ranked Henning 69-55 to advance to the section finals.
Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 13:
Mountain Iron-Buhl 79, Carlton/Wrenshall 70
Albany 87, Spectrum 64
East Central 64, Upsala 56
Nevis 79, Browerville 55
Annandale 61, Osakia 50
I'm not there physically, but I've got a great source of information helping me stay in touch with how the Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers women's basketball team is faring in their first round of the NJCAA National Tournament. The games are being played in Rochester, Minnesota at the Regional Sports Center.
At halftime: the Northland Pioneers hold a 44-22 lead against No. 12-seeded Nassau Community College.
In the third quarter...
The Pioneers are absolutely taking the Lions apart in the third quarter and have expanded the lead to 58-26 with about 4 1/2 minutes to go before the final quarter. Later, with under 3 minutes left in the third, the Pioneers are ahead 62-26. At the end of three: Pioneers 66, Lions 30. UPDATE: the Northland Pioneers (23-5) won 84-49 with Tiyana Schwinghammer pouring in 18 points and at least 18 rebounds! (I didn't catch final stats) They advance to the Elite 8 of nationals and face No. 4-ranked Anoka-Ramsey tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
**Here's a video from pregame and the start of the game in the playoff opener last Thursday:
More to come. Tonight, this blog post will feature updates from the sub-section boys' basketball game at Minnewaska Area. Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and it will be broadcast on both local radio stations. **Here's the link for Smooth Magic 107 FM: http://www.smoothmagic107.com. And here's 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake/Sunburg: https://www.willmarradio.com/the_Train.
**Halftime: WCA 33, B-B-E 25. It's been an outstanding game so far!
This blog post is a wrap. Update the blog for the "Step III" blog post to see how this game turned out.
Jaguar fastpitch, sad news, junior college basketball nationals and more (VIDEOS)
I'm going to lead off with the sad news here...
Mr. Keith Clementson has passed away. He was a genuinely warm-hearted person and one of my favorite teachers at B-B-E. You can see his obituary here: https://shorturl.at/bknR5. This news has weighed on me all day as I battle to get the newspaper ready for press. He was a great man who cared deeply for his students. His daughters Susanne and Dawn were Belgrade-Elrosa high school graduates, while his daughter Amy graduated from B-B-E high school in 1991.
In sports news...
For the first time in school history, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team started their first week of preseason drills in the outdoors. The weather has been terrific today and yesterday! It reached a high of about 68 degrees on Monday. Today it climbed to about 63 degrees.
Here's a video from the tail end of practice tonight:
This year's Jaguars fastpitch team will have, for the first time since 2012, a C-squad/JV counterpart. Altogether, the Jaguars have 26 players in grades 8-12 that allows them to field two squads. This is exciting!
Here is overtime from the Region 13B junior college women's basketball championship game at Anoka Ramsey Community College on March 3:
B-B-E Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer is averaging 14.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game for the No. 2-ranked Pioneers, who are 22-5 going into the national tournament. You can read more on the Northland Community and Technical College's upcoming trip to the NJCAA national tournament by clicking here: https://rb.gy/fm25e4.
More to come...probably on Wednesday morning. I have a newspaper to get ready for the printing press tonight!
UPDATE late Tuesday night: I just returned from the site of a serious accident on County Road 8 west of Brooten. It appears that a truck was overturned along the shoulder of the inside of the first curve on CR8 west of town. Multiple Brooten fire trucks and first responders were on the scene. I'll learn more about this tomorrow morning. UPDATE on Wednesday: it was a pickup roller accident, and Pope County Sheriff's was the responding law enforcement agency handling it. Brooten Fire Department was also on scene.
St. Patrick's Day celebration coming to Padua: a TWO day affair!
You can read all the details by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/ltzDQ.
The web article posted there also features a video from the March 2021 St. Patrick's Day parade.
In the "remarkable news" category...today, Sunday, the B-B-E Class of 2032 girls' basketball fourth grade team competed in the Region 3 Pacesetter tournament in Redwood Falls. With 11 players, they competed against five teams for a berth in the state tournament. They played incredible, incredible defense all day long. It was something you really had to see for yourself. In pool play against the eventual region champion, Hutchinson, the Jaguars lost 4-0. Hutchinson went on to defeat Yellow Medicine East by a score of 24-2 in the Region 3 championship game. Needless to say, the future is bright for this team!
Also coming this weekend...
The Belgrade Lions will host their annual Chili Cook-off fundraiser on Saturday, March 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Belgrade VFW. Details have been published in the past two issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
On Tuesday...sad news! Mr. Keith Clementson passed away. He was one of my favorite teachers at B-B-E. You can see his obituary here: https://shorturl.at/bknR5. This news has weighed on me all day. He was a great man who cared deeply for his students. His daughters Susanne and Dawn were Belgrade-Elrosa high school graduates, while his daughter Amy graduated from B-B-E high school in 1991.
Step II: Jaguars advance to the 'Ship! (VIDEO added)
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team improved to 2-0 in the postseason with another double-digit win to continue on in the Sub-Section 6A-South tournament. The Jaguars expanded on a 35-24 halftime lead against No. 3-seeded Brandon-Evansville only to see it shrink down to seven points in the closing minutes. A clutch three-pointer by Kaden DeRoo with just 90 seconds to go helped stave off a potential Chargers comeback in the final minutes. His late triple gave the Jaguars a 74-63 lead.
Final: B-B-E 80, Brandon-Evansville 68. The Chargers finish 13-15 overall. Their leading scorer, a junior, had 26 points.
B-B-E jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and a three-pointer by Josh Walstrom gave them a 12-4 lead. The Chargers cut it to 15-12 and later 18-17, but a rebound shot by Luke Illies made it 20-17 with 5:40 left. Luke Dingmann's bucket on an inbounds play capped a 6-0 run, and Walstrom's layup pushed the lead to 26-19 with 4 minutes to go. A three-for-three trip to the free throw line by Hayden Sobiech with 2 minutes left gave the Jaguars a 31-19 lead. His three-point play capped an 11-0 run with 80 seconds left, but the Chargers got 5 late points in the closing minute to make it 35-24 at the break.
A steal and layup by Kaden DeRoo pushed the Jaguars ahead 42-27. Walstrom later hit a rebound shot to give the Jaguars a 52-35 lead with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Brandon-Evansville cut it down to 65-58 with just over 4 minutes to go as their man-to-man defense put pressure on the Jaguars. Clutch shooting down the stretch pushed the lead back to double digits, including a fastbreak layup by Walstrom that put the Jaguars ahead 78-63.
B-B-E finished with no fewer than five players in double figures as they shot 46 percent from the field and made 7 of 19 three-point attempts. The Chargers made it a game by draining 12 three-pointers.
Now 20-8 overall, the Jaguars have a tall task in front of them as they prepare for No. 3-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) West Central Area. The Knights (25-3) defeated defending Section 6A champion Border West today 71-45. In the regular season, they went 12-2 in the West Central Conference to claim the title alone. Across the past two seasons, WCA has a 22-6 record in the WCC. The Knights also had a tremendous season in 2021-2022, when they finished 22-5 overall as runners-up in Sub-Section 3AA-North. The Knights won the Pheasant Conference that season with a 7-1 record.
The next round of playoffs, the Sub-Section 6A-South finals, will be on Wednesday, March 13 at Minnewaska Area high school with tip-off at 7 p.m. against the WCA Knights.
**Here's a video from the final minute of the subsection playoff opener last Thursday against Benson:
In Sub-Section 6A-North, Henning defeated Park Christian 49-45. In their other semifinal game, Ada-Borup defeated a very good No. 6-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News)Hillcrest Lutheran Academy team 82-62. The HLA Comets were Little Eight Conference champions with a 15-1 record. Needless to say, the north half of Section 6A is stacked!
In their second straight upset win of the playoffs, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta defeated No. 6-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) Eden Valley-Watkins 57-53 in the Sub-Section 3AA-North championship today in Marshall. The No. 4-seeded MA/CA Tigers take a 20-9 record into the Section 3AA championship, where they will take on Jackson County Central. The JCC Huskies are 20-7 overall and were the No. 2 seed in Sub-Section 3AA-South. They earned a 59-45 upset win against No. 17-ranked (MBB) Redwood Valley in their subsection finals. On paper, that game was billed to be close as JCC was rated No. 12 in Class 2A by QRF and JCC No. 15. MA/CA is rated No. 26 by QRF, and EV-W was rated No. 18.
In Section 6AA, Coach Kevin Kuefler's Sauk Centre squad went down in a narrow defeat by a 57-53 score to Osakis at St. John's University tonight. The Mainstreeters finish another strong season with a 21-7 overall record. They went 10-4 in the rugged West Central Conference, which was good for a tie for second place with Montevideo. Sauk Centre was solo champions in the WCC in 2022-2023, and they were runners-up in 2021-2022. Across the past three seasons, Coach Kuefler's Maintreeters have gone 62-23.
Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 9:
Nevis 82, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 50
Albany 57, Melrose Area 50
Upsala 74, Braham 54
Annandale 89, Foley 58
Great Northern robotics regional: a day for redemption! (VIDEO)
This is a day for a comeback for the B-B-E Resistance Robotics team in Grand Forks. They have their eyes set on running the table to finish out the Great Northern Regional competition at the spacious Alerus Center! Their robot finished strong in Friday's matches while performing all of its functions in the sixth qualification match of the tournament.
The opening ceremonies and performances of the U.S. National Anthem and Canada's national anthem take place at 8:30 a.m., and the second day of competition starts at about 9 a.m.
Also taking place today: the boys' basketball team faces Brandon-Evansville in the subsection semifinals at Minnewaska Area this afternoon.
Here's video from the last match of yesterday!
Here's how Saturday is playing out in Grand Forks...
In their first match of today, B-B-E's Red Alliance earned an exciting 49-35 win after the autonomous period ended in a 14-14 tie. This moved them up from 55th place to 52nd place in the field of 56 teams.
Update at lunch time: B-B-E's Blue Alliance won their second match of Saturday 58-48 in a Blue Alliance with Willmar and Loretto. This moved them up to 51st place overall. In B-B-E's final qualification match, their Red Alliance with New London-Spicer and Delano lost a tough, close battle by a 44-39 score. They were confident of being in the running for getting selected to a playoff alliance, but that last loss took them out of the running. The region competition for the 2024 season has officially concluded. Five hugely valuable seniors graduate off the team: Davin Preble, Owen Paulson, Odin Jensen, Aiden Johnson and Jeffrey Cihlar.
Officially, the season record was 2-7, and they ended in 53rd place out of 56 teams.
********** Halftime: the boys' basketball team is ahead 35 to 24 at halftime against the Chargers in their playoff game this afternoon.
I am still making my way back to Fargo. The game is on both local radio stations.
Great Northern robotics regional: day two a steep uphill climb! (VIDEO)
B-B-E Resistance Robotics team's troubles that were on the horizon to conclude the practice day of the Great Northern robotics regional in Grand Forks were front and center nearly the entire day on Friday.
Through the first five matches, B-B-E's robot failed to complete an entire match without technical difficulties. By the sixth try, though, the robot ran flawlessly and pulled off a tremendous performance to conclude Friday at Grand Fork's Alerus Center. In the sixth match, the robot successfully performed its pre-programmed directive in the autonomous period and also successfully fired five game pieces during the tele-op period. To conclude the sixth match, B-B-E's robot pulled off a successful "hang" by its extendable boom lifts. This final hang earned the one ranking point, which ultimately pulled them out of last place in the tournament's 56-team field. During an afternoon match, the robot functioned without issue until halfway into the tele-op (driver control) period, at which point an ethernet cable became unplugged; this cut communications from the driver and stopped the robot cold.
So what happened...?
The problems initially started when as many as 13 of 16 controller motors on the robot malfunctioned. This sent the outlook into a tailspin as the team had to either repair or replace the faulty motors. Another issue arose when a key wire was crossed that sent 12 volts of power into a 5 volt system on the robot. For one of B-B-E's early qualification matches, only three of the four drive wheels were functioning.
Video from today's action in Grand Forks is uploading.
Here's Coach Reed Adrian providing a few comments just as the team was departing the Alerus Center to go find supper:
In basketball news today...
West sub-section champion Walker-Hackensack-Akeley punched their ticket to the Class 1A state tournament by defeating East sub-section champion Braham 67-63 in tonight's Section 5A championship at St. Cloud State University.
Southwest Minnesota Christian avenged one of their two regular season losses by throttling Minneota 58-38 tonight in the Section 3A championship at SMSU's R/A Facility in Marshall. The Eagles lost on their home floor to Minneota 57-53 on February 6. On paper it was billed to be a close match-up, with Southwest Christian sitting at No. 15 in the latest QRF rankings and Minneota at No. 12. The Eagles take a 28-2 record into state next week. Minneota finishes another incredible season with a 27-4 record.
In the Section 3AA finals, New London-Spicer buried South sub-section champion Windom 80-40. Ouch.
To the west in Section 6A, Underwood earned a mild 71-61 upset win against Hancock to punch through to the state tournament for the second straight year.
Over in Section 6AA, a powerhouse Albany team stopped Holdingford's season with a 76-50 win at SCSU tonight.
In Section 7A, Mountain Iron-Buhl appears destined to win a second straight state title after they buried the No. 8-ranked Cromwell-Wright Cardinals 77-35 in their section title game tonight at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Earlier in the season on December 9 down in Goodhue, MI-B defeated Cromwell-Wright 76-63.
B-B-E robotics is in Grand Forks! Ready to shine! (UPDATES, VIDEOS**)
Note: this blog post has received numerous updates throughout the day. Video has also been added from Grand Forks.
The B-B-E Resistance Robotics team arrived in Grand Forks on Wednesday night for the F.I.R.S.T. Great Northern Regional competition.
As of Thursday night, a total of 56 teams were registered. The first qualification match starts at 8:55 a.m. this morning (Friday). B-B-E's team has their first match in the second overall match, which is set to begin at 9:06 a.m. Their second match is set for approximately 10:39 a.m., and their third match is set for around 11:28 a.m.
More to come later this morning. On my way up Interstate 94 and 29, I will make at least one stop to update this blog post with results from their first and possibly second matches. It is unlikely that I will arrive in time to watch the second match in person.
**Here's a video recorded a little over a week ago, on Wednesday the 28th, at B-B-E high school's CTE lab:
I've got a small robotics article added to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website...it includes a video from the February 27 practice session at the high school's CTE lab. The robot was working remarkably well that week: https://shorturl.at/mU356.
FRIDAY morning updates...
The luster came off of the day when B-B-E's robot failed to move in their first qualification match. Their blue alliance lost the match 75-27. It was a frustrating turn of events, after they had a great run through the practice sessions yesterday in Grand Forks.
**Match two update: B-B-E's robot underperformed throughout the entire match, and when it was over, their red alliance trailed by a wide margin. For a reason I did not understand, the match will actually get to be replayed at a later time today. On the master list, this is the 14th qualification match out of 84 total. B-B-E's Red Alliance included teams from Stillwater and Litchfield.
B-B-E's third qualification match will be in a Red Alliance with teams from Cando, North Dakota and Annandale. I'm estimating that this match should start at 11:38 a.m. The qualification matches are running about 7 to 8 minutes later from the original schedule.
Match No. 3 results: B-B-E's third match of the day started at 11:45. After the autonomous period (using artificial intelligence) was complete, B-B-E's Red Alliance had a small 14-12 lead. After that, their alliance got lit up, and they lost by a final score of 79-29. Ouch. Officially, B-B-E's record so far is 0-2. Their next match is set for approximately 13:52 this afternoon.
**UPDATE: B-B-E's second qualification match will get replayed at about 12:20. After that it is lunch time! I will be in the Alerus Center the rest of the afternoon.
Official results for B-B-E's second qualification match: (this was the replayed match) B-B-E's Red Alliance trailed 24-14 after the autonomous period was complete. From there it got worse, and B-B-E's robot failed for most of the tele-op (driver control) period. Their alliance lost by a wide 69-33 margin, sending their record to 0-3 in the regional. It was a very tough morning for B-B-E Resistance Robotics. They have the afternoon with three matches to redeem themselves.
Match No. 4 outcome: B-B-E's Blue Alliance, which included teams from Rolla, North Dakota and Ashby, lost 56-25. They trailed 17-12 after the autonomous period ended.
**Here's a video featuring the drive team heading out to the competition floor at Alerus Center this afternoon:
*Match No. 5 outcome: B-B-E's robot functioned properly and was able to shoot two game pieces after their Blue Alliance held a 22-19 lead after the autonomous period. Overall, it was great progress compared to the morning! An Ethernet cable became unplugged during the first minute of the tele-op period. Their Blue Alliance lost by a score of 60-31. One other team member in their alliance, Cambridge-Isanti, suffered a similar robot malfunction. The third team of their alliance was from Moorhead.
The fifth and final match of Friday will start at about 4:40 p.m.
Final match of Friday...the outcome: B-B-E's robotics team finished the day strong in spite of their alliance losing the match by a 79-53 score. I'll get a post-match interview with Coach Reed Adrian posted in a new blog post later tonight after I arrive at my family's hotel room in Fargo! That's 75 miles away right now...I am proud of our robotics team for hanging together through rough circumstances!! Tomorrow, the sun will rise on a new day!!! ##GRATEFUL
I'll circle back to this in tonight's blog post, but I wanted to quick mention that Braham's girls' basketball team will play for the state tournament tonight when they take on Walker-Hackensack-Akeley in the Section 5A championship. The Bombers and Wolves square off at Halenbeck Hall on the campus of SCSU with tip-off at approximately 7:45 p.m. Braham destroyed top-seeded Ogilvie 90-62 in the Sub-Section 5A-East championship on Wednesday night. Of course, it makes you wonder just how badly the Jaguars would have likely beaten Ogilvie if they had come out on top last Saturday against Braham. That's the world of sports! It can sometimes be a game of inches. In tonight's Section 3A finals, Minneota faces Southwest Christian of Edgerton for a state berth.
Against a young, up-and-coming Benson Braves squad in the last game this season on the home floor, the No. 2-seeded B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team picked up a 77-61 win to start their journey in the Sub-Section 6A-South tournament.
Here's a video from later in the second half tonight:
Ahead 59-53 late in the game, the Jaguars came on strong down the stretch to win by double digits. With 4:43 to go, the Jaguars led 64-55. In the video above, they are coming out of a timeout at that time with the nine-point lead.
Four B-B-E players were in double figures, with junior Hayden Sobiech leading the way with 18 points plus 5 rebounds and 2 assists. The team shot 36 percent from the floor and made 19 of 27 free throw shots.
Now 19-8 overall, the Jaguars travel to Minnewaska Area this Saturday afternoon to face No. 3-seeded Brandon-Evansville. Tip-off is set for approximately 3 p.m. for the semifinal game. The Chargers advanced with a 50-42 win against neighboring and Little Eight Conference rival Ashby.
In the Sub-Section 3A-North tournament today, No. 4-seeded Minneota scored a huge upset by defeating No. 1-seeded and state-ranked Dawson-Boyd 61-57 in overtime in their semifinal round. In Sub-Section 3AA-North, No. 2-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins ended Paynesville Area's season with a 72-44 win. The Bulldogs, who had one of their best-ever regular seasons in school history, were the No. 3 seed.
Tomorrow morning I head north on a 213-mile journey to the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. The B-B-E Resistance Robotics team arrived in Grand Forks last night for the F.I.R.S.T. Great Northern Regional competition. As of Thursday night, a total of 56 teams were registered. The first qualification match starts at 8:55 a.m. on Friday. B-B-E's team has their first match in the second overall match, which is set to begin at 9:06 a.m. Their second match is set for approximately 10:39 a.m., and their third match is set for around 11:28 a.m.
Area boys' basketball scores on March 7:
Sauk Centre 66, Milaca 38
Osakis 65, Holdingford 53
Melrose Area 92, Mora 67
Eden Valley-Watkins 72, Paynesville Area 44
Albany 85, Pine City 48
Legacy Christian 81, Royalton 57
Morris Area 65, Montevideo 63
Browerville 84, Pine River-Backus 49
West Central Area 74, Breckenridge 40
Redwood Valley 93, Luverne 66
Spectrum 74, Kimball Area 34
Annandale 89, Rush City 34
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team is hosting Benson tonight to start the postseason. The game is being aired on both Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood and 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake-Sunburg. The Braves are 1-0 so far in the playoffs with a play-in round game win against visiting Ortonville on Monday this week.
With 9 minutes played in the first half, the Jaguars are ahead 20 to 8 against Benson.
At halftime: B-B-E holds a 41-30 lead.
The Braves fired in the opening seconds of the second half with a three-pointer, but the Jaguars answered with Luke Dingmann's bucket for a 43-33 score. Luke Illies then bombed from the three-point line to make it 46-33.
**With 9 minutes to go in the game, the Jaguars are ahead 57 to 47.
**With 6 minutes to go, the Jaguars are ahead 59-53.
THANK YOU to Bonanza Valley State Bank for sponsoring this Jaguars Sports playoff blog post!
Speech team shines in the Driftless Area, and a former Jaguar goes NJCAA dancing!
While the student body of B-B-E high school has been a giant disappointment in terms of the turnout provided for the B-B-E speech team, the students who are on the speech team have been having a remarkably strong season in spite of their small roster. Last weekend, the speech team had an overnight road trip to southeastern Minnesota's Driftless Area, to Chatfield high school. All members of the team who attended the meet placed fifth or better. Additional coverage of the team was published on page one this week of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
More to come. Remember that tonight the boys' basketball team hosts Benson with a 7 p.m. playoff game to begin the Sub-Section 6A-South tournament.
**Update on Thursday afternoon...I just got the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website updated. One of the added articles relates to the wrestling team. You can click over and read that while also taking in the end of the 172-pound state championship match on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center: https://shorturl.at/AILUW. Exciting times for our small but mighty wrestling program!
B-B-E Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer and her Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers women's basketball team are going dancing! They are going dancing at the NJCAA National Tournament, which will be held March 13 to March 16 in Rochester, Minnesota. The Pioneers, 22-5 overall, lost 75-69 in overtime on Sunday in Coon Rapids to Minnesota West in the Region 13B championship. While the Lady Jays of Worthington earned the automatic bid to the NJCAAs, the Pioneers had to wait until yesterday to learn whether or not they received an at-large bid. They were in fact one of four teams who were given at-large bids to nationals, and they join eight region champions from across the United States from the NJCAA Division III ranks to earn national hardware.
The Northland Pioneers are the No. 5 seed in the tournament, and they open at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 against No. 12-seeded Nassau Community College of Long Island, New York. You can read more by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/ceDT3. The NCC Lions led all NJCAA Division III teams with 22 steals per game. Their leading scorer is Aiyana Hamilton, the No. 5 leading scorer in the nation. Northland, meanwhile, has the No. 7-ranked offense in the country at 73 points per game.
Northland freshman Emma Osborn leads the Pioneers at 16 points per game, while Tiyana Schwinghammer is second on the team with 14.6 points per game. Schwinghammer leads the team at 10.3 rebounds per game, which is the eighth-highest in the nation.
Here's a change of pace...as readers of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper know, last Thursday and Friday I was in Duluth with my wife on a small getaway. The big part of the trip included the Matt Rife comedy show at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center on Thursday night. Below is a video I shot the next day in the Canal Park business district in Duluth.
VIDEO:
Today I'm in the midst of preparing for a trip to Grand Forks tomorrow and Saturday, where I'll be taking in the F.I.R.S.T. Great Northern Regional robotics competition with B-B-E's team in action at the Alerus Center. Here's additional information on the competition: https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/2024/NDGF.
Additional notes from last week and boys' basketball is seeded
I haven't gotten around to posting boys' basketball playoff information yet...plus I've got other notes to add at this blog post on Monday night and also tomorrow morning.
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team is seeded No. 2 in Sub-Section 6A-South. They wait to see who they play in the quarterfinals. That will be decided tonight in Benson, where the No. 7-seeded Braves are hosting No. 10-seeded Ortonville in a play-in round game. The Jaguars, 18-8 overall and winners of five straight, host the quarterfinal game on Thursday this week with a 7 p.m. tip-off in Brooten.
State-ranked West Central Area, champions of the West Central Conference this season with a 12-2 record, is the No. 1 seed in the south half of Section 6A with a 23-3 record. The Knights, No. 3 in the latest Minnesota Basketball News state rankings, will play either Parkers Prairie or Breckenridge in their quarterfinal game in Barrett this Friday. WCA has won 13 straight games since Coach Kevin Kuefler's Sauk Centre Mainstreeters beat them 54-50 in Barrett on January 16.
In Sub-Section 6A-North, No. 4-ranked Henning is the top seed, while No. 10-ranked Ada-Borup West is the No. 2 seed.
UPDATE: Benson won 78-59 over Ortonville to advance to the sub-section quarterfinals. The Braves hold an 11-16 overall record.
Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 2:
Montevideo 56, Minnewaska Area 49
Eden Valley-Watkins 42, Litchfield 38 (Quite a border battle between the No. 2-seeded Eagles and the No. 7-seeded Dragons)
Paynesville Area 63, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 50
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 70, New London-Spicer 59
Step II: girls' basketball season concludes early (VIDEO)
Against a high-scoring, defensive-minded Braham Bombers team yesterday, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team knew they had their work cut out for themselves in the Sub-Section 5A-East semifinals. Playing at Hinckley-Finlayson high school, a full 120 miles from home, the Jaguars played their hearts from wire to wire in a heartbreaking 65-62 loss.
The Jaguars had an early advantage in the majority of the first half before the Bombers came back to force a 28-28 tie at halftime. It was a crushing end in a game where they put it all out there while shredding Braham's 40-points-per-game defensive average. On the other end, Braham matched their season scoring average with strong play down the stretch.
In the other Sub-Section 5A-East semifinal game played in Hinckley, top-seeded and No. 16-ranked and Great River Conference champion Ogilvie (24-3) defeated Upsala 69-61. The Lions have won nine straight.
The Jaguars finished a marvelous season 17-11 overall, which included a 9-5 finish in the Central Minnesota Conference, good for third place alone.
Braham takes a 23-5 record into the subsection championship game next Wednesday back in Hinckley. They are just 26 miles away and had a whopping two fewer less hours of drive time than our Jaguars did. That type of playoff disparity is completely unnecessary in the cell phone era where communication and the spread of information can be done in the blink of an eye. Here's what really gets me: for a semifinal game like yesterday's game at H-F high school, fine, I can let it go that a couple teams (Upsala and B-B-E) had extensive drive time. I understand the need to have a site picked when there was only one day of turnaround time (Friday) between the quarterfinals and semifinals. But in this next round...yes, it worked out this time, because Ogilvie and Braham are literally in the same neighborhood as Hinckley. If the Jaguars had defeated Braham, however, they would have again had a 120-mile drive, and Ogilvie would have a 30-mile drive! A more reasonable idea is that the MSHSL officials could have picked 2 or 3 sites (Foley comes to mind) that included Hinckley to have on standby. Once the teams were decided by the semifinal games, then you select that championship game site. THEN you put the word out via social media and the cellular devices. A game at Foley would make the drive time far more equitable IF our Jaguars had won the game and moved on to face Ogilvie. (27 miles for Ogilvie and 65 miles for B-B-E...SERIOUSLY, that would have cut off 55 miles of one-way driving for B-B-E!) I recall the use of "TBD" in playoff schedules before COVID. It's time that we move back to that, and resume use of some of the common sense we had before the pandemic.
As a taxpayer and a parent of basketball athletes, I have a right to complain - and complain I will!
Area girls' basketball playoff scores on March 2:
Holdingford 61, Osakis 20
Sauk Centre 61, Pine City 42
Albany 70, Royalton 33
Hancock 71, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 34
Underwood 76, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 66
Breckenridge 59, West Central Area 58
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 61, Bertha-Hewitt 53
Nevis 50, Verndale 42 (Pirates were the No. 2 seed in Sub-Section 5A-West)
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 61, Bertha-Hewitt 53
Annandale 72, St. Cloud Cathedral 53
TODAY: I am following through a promise to numerous people, including my youngest daughter, and will be out of town this afternoon. Here's a video featuring overtime yesterday in Coon Rapids...(that's where I was):
Just before a return trip to Anoka Ramsey Community College today...I learned absolutely brutal, devastating news about a newspaper colleague of mine. I'll write more about that in the newspaper.
UPDATE at Coon Rapids on Sunday afternoon: the Northland Technical and Community College Pioneers women's basketball team holds a 34-25 halftime lead against Minnesota West Community College in the Region 13B championship game. At stake is a berth in the NJCAA Division III national tournament. The Northland Pioneers were ranked No. 3 in the latest NJCAA national rankings, while the Bluejays of Worthington were ranked No. 2. This is Northland's first apperance in a region championship game since 2020, when the Pioneers took second place at nationals. Northland won the NJCAA DIII national title in 2014 after entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed.
After three quarters in Coon Rapids...the Bluejays have snuck ahead with a monster third quarter and hold a 46-45 lead going into the last quarter of regulation play. And with 4:23 left in the game...the Pioneers and Bluejays are locked in a 55-55 tie.
We have overtime coming in Coon Rapids! It's 64-64 after regulation play. Wow. I'll get an update here after 5 p.m.
Final: Bluejays 75, Pioneers 69 in overtime. Tiyana Schwinghammer had a monster game with 15 points by halftime. She finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Her Pioneers squad now waits to hear if they earn a possible at-large bid to the NJCAA national tournament, which is in a couple weeks in Rochester, Minnesota.
