It was a noteworthy difference in the scorebox: 11-for-34 compared to 18-for-48. These are the statistics for tonight's game from inside the arc. From a percentage perspective, it was about identical, but the Lakers got off 14 more two-point field goals overall tonight. After the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team built a 25-17 lead with 3:51 to go, the Lakers stormed back to close the gap to 30-29 at the break.
Coming out of the locker room, the Lakers played lights-out defense in the early portion of the second half while going on a 7-0 run. The struggles continued from there for the Jaguars, while Minnewaska Area blew the game open with a 15-0 run between 13 minutes and around 9:30 to go.
Final score: Minnewaska Area 64, B-B-E 47. The Lakers are 2-0 after suffering through a difficult 2-25 season last year. The Jaguars fall to 0-2.
Next: the boys' basketball team travels to Brandon-Evansville high school this Saturday, December 7 (in Brandon) for a key sub-section battle with the Chargers. Tip-off for the varsity boys game will be at about 5 p.m. Earlier that afternoon, our girls' basketball team faces the Chargers in a non-conference game. B-E's boys' basketball team will be looking for revenge after getting knocked out of the playoffs last March by our Jaguars. Tonight at Upsala in a non-conference game, the Chargers won their season opener 61-56. According to an Echo Press season preview article, B-E has conference and section aspirations in mind with 8 seniors and 7 juniors on a deep roster. The Chargers have one of the best players in the Little Eight Conference and Section 6A in senior Micah Fuller, who was last year's Little Eight MVP. As a junior, Fuller averaged 22.4 points per game with 7.1 rebounds per game, 1.9 assists per game and 1.7 steals per game. He had a hot shooting hand all year long and finished with 52 percent field goal shooting (36% on the arc) and 75 percent free throw shooting.
Back to tonight's game...
From beyond the arc tonight, Minnewaska shot 8-for-22, and the Jaguars shot 6-for-21. Josh Walstrom with 14 points and Taylor Pieper with 13 points were the lone Jaguars in double figures. Against intense defense, Luke Illies scored 9 points while snaring 12 rebounds. B-B-E's 30-29 lead in the first half was made in large part on 5-of-10 three-point shooting. The tables turned, however, as the Jaguars made just 1 of 11 shots on the arc after halftime while they were outscored 35-17.
Here's a video from the first half with just over 7 minutes to go tonight:
In the start of that video, the Jaguars hold a 20-17 lead.
The Lakers were led tonight by Marc Gruber, who scored 20 points. In Minnewaska's season opener on Tuesday at Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, Gruber led the Lakers with 21 points in a 76-56 win. Marc is the son of Brian Gruber, who was a 1986 graduate of Belgrade-Elrosa high school.
Let's step away for a moment from high school sports...
I'll be getting to game video shortly. I'm currently watching live stats for the St. Cloud State University volleyball team, who is hosting the NCAA National tournament opener. They split the first two sets but won game three 25-17. The Huskies (27-2) are the top seed in their region, and they are facing No. 8-seeded Ouachita Baptist of Arkansas, who won game two in extra points 28-26. Emily Kern, a 2022 B-B-E graduate, is a junior defensive specialist for the Huskies, who are ranked No. 2 in the nation! Crazy!
You can watch Emily's team by clicking here: https://nsicnetwork.com/scsuhuskies. At 10 p.m. tonight, game four was at the mid-way point with the Huskies ahead 11-7. Later in the fourth set, the Tigers closed it to a 16-13 SCSU lead. From there, it was all Huskies in a big, BIG way as SCSU ran away with the fourth set with a 9-0 run. Final score: SCSU 25, Ouachita Baptist 13. The SCSU Huskies volleyball team is heading to the NCAA Round of 32! They are 28-2 overall and have won a whopping 24 straight matches!
Fun fact: this was SCSU's first home NCAA National Tournament match in school history. Another fact that caught my ears: if SCSU's opponent drove to Minnesota, the drive would have lasted over 14 hours. I'm guessing they're on the far southern end of the NCAA D-II's Central Region? This was OBU's first-ever appearance in the NCAA National Tournament.
Next for SCSU: the Huskies face NSIC arch-rival Concordia-St. Paul (the region's No. 4 seed) at 7 p.m. back at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud tomorrow night, December 6. At stake is a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16!
Friday update...
Today, the funeral for Keith Presler was held at Big Grove Lutheran. I don't know if I'll have time to post any video before making a trip to both basketball and dance team action tonight. The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouttes dance team travels to the Minnewaska Invitational tonight for their season opener! Their dance team season preview was published in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. The invitational begins at 6 p.m. following the singing of the National Anthem at 5:55 p.m. The Pirouettes varsity jazz squad should perform at about 7:05 p.m.** Spread the word!
Area boys' basketball scores on December 5:
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 67, MACCRAY 59
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 90, Litchfield 36
Pierz 85, Swanville 68
Wabasso 81, Hancock 68
Brandon-Evansville 61, Upsala 56
Underwood 69, Rothsay 63
Montevideo 107, Lac qui Parle Valley 70 (a whopping 177 points scored in a crazy border battle at Montevideo)
Melrose Area 62, Foley 38
Osakis 79, Paynesville Area 50
Renville County West 72, Benson 69 (a tough loss for the Braves on their home floor after they led 45-37 at halftime)
Central MN Christian 81, BOLD 50
Breckenridge 55, Battle Lake 50
Henning 61, Bertha-Hewitt 29
Staples-Motley 66, West Central Area 60 (this is WCA's first regular-season loss since they fell 54-50 to Sauk Centre in Barrett on January 19 of last season, ending a 13-game regular season win streak; in the postseason last year, WCA went 6-1 and took third at state; the Staples-Motley Cardinals avenged a 93-73 loss to WCA last December in a 16-13 season)
