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.
