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.
