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