Jaguars fight to the end, but a win streak ends, and a Winter Sports Show! (VIDEOS)

A lengthy winning streak came to an end tonight for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team against the defending Camden North Conference champions that has 6 seniors on its roster.

Facing neighboring rival Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, the Jaguars suffered a nearly six-minute-long scoring drought in the latter half of the first 18-minute period. After clawing back from trailing 13-7 to tie it at 17-17, the Jaguars went from the 8:00 mark to the 2:18 mark in the first half without scoring. During that time, the Fighting Saints scored 15 unanswered points, and they led 37-25 at halftime.

Final score: K-M-S 70, B-B-E 62. Game notes to follow on this blog post, and later tonight, I will be adding my first winter sports show recording of the 2024-2025 sports season. Stay tuned!

Here's a video featuring the final seconds of the first half:


As you can see in that video, the Fighting Saints came within a fraction of a second of taking a 40-25 lead into the halftime break. Sophomore guard Leah Wagner pulled off an incredible shot with Bree Thieschafer guarding her, but she released the ball just barely after the buzzer sounded.

In the second half, the Jaguars trailed by double digits for over 10 minutes on all but one possession. About 3 minutes into the second half, Macey Roering's three-pointer cut it to a 39-30 deficit. K-M-S had 13-point leads on at least three possessions and led 55-42 with about 8 minutes left in the game. Bree Thieschafer hit an 8-footer with 6:25 left that made it 55-48. Later, with 4:50 to go, Thieschafer's coast-to-coast drive and layup made it 59-54. Unfortunately, a five-point spread as close as the Jaguars could get in the game's final 5 minutes.

A few numbers from tonight...
The Jaguars shot just 30 percent from the floor. A glaring item in the scorebox was an 0-for-6 mark from beyond the arc in the first half. Kacey Fischer led the Jaguars with a double double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. K-M-S was led by junior guard Acelynn Hacker's 23 points, which included three three-point shots.

Next: the Jaguars (3-3) have no time to regroup, as they are set for a second home game in two nights with Maple Lake coming to town tomorrow night for a Central Minnesota Conference game.

Just released from my winter recording studio! Here's my first winter sports show recording of this 2024-2025 season...this one lasts almost 17 minutes...


For this winter sports season's podcast recordings, I've settled on a catchy tune that is also a popular song as of late...called "Stargazing" by Myles Smith. If you look closely during the video recording, you can see that it was a little cold in my recording studio (our Suburban). I did the whole thing from the top of my head without looking at my notes, so it got a little rough at times. I hope to get in a rhythm of recording at least one of these shows each week this winter.

The Fighting Saints (6-0) defeated the Jaguars for the first time in 12 seasons. On February 12, 2013, the Fighting Saints won at Kerkhoven 47-38 against our Jaguars. B-B-E has won every meeting since then until tonight, including a handful of playoff games in Section 5A. In that 2012-13 season, K-M-S finished 15-8 and took second place in the Camden North Conference before losing their their playoff opener to CMC-Prinsburg. That was Coach Kristina Anderson's first year as head coach at B-B-E, and it was also the last time the Jaguars failed to advance past the sub-section quarterfinals. The final record was 8-19 that year.

I looked back at the full records for the past 10 years or so, and K-M-S saw their girls' basketball season end at the hands of our Jaguars four straight seasons between 2016 and 2019.

Other noteworthy items: K-M-S entered tonight's game 5-0 overall, and that was their first 5-0 start to a season since 2018-2019. That season was also K-M-S's first year under current head coach Justin Johnson. Their final record was 13-14 overall. B-B-E traveled to K-M-S in the second-to-last regular season game and beat the Fighting Saints 65-27. In the Sub-Section 5A-South semifinals 13 days later, the Fighting Saints gave a tremendous performance in a 48-37 loss to our Jaguars at Little Falls high school. The Jaguars finished second in Section 5A that season. One of B-B-E's seniors that year was Cassandra Tensen, who is currently a K-M-S varsity assistant coach and a staff member at K-M-S high school.

Before I get back to other reporting plus the area scoreboard, I want to post a shout out to Kensington Insurance and their staff as they are set to host Christmas/Holiday Open House events next Wednesday, December 18 at their new locations in Belgrade and Willmar. Here's what's posted on the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website community calendar:
Nancy Mathiason and her friendly, helpful staff at Kensington Insurance invite all their fine customers to their upcoming Holiday Open House on Wednesday, December 18 in Belgrade and Willmar. Kensington Insurance will host these events at their two new locations: in Belgrade from 10 a.m. to noon at 312 Washburn Avenue plus in Willmar from 2 to 4 p.m. at 2211 1st Street, Suite 130. Refreshments will be served at both locations.

Kensington Insurance is one example of many local businesses who provide tremendous advertising support to the newspaper 12 months out of the year. Without that support, you would not be reading this Jaguars Sports blog coverage or anything of any coverage of any event in the Bonanza Valley Voice...the newspaper would fold like a bad hand of cards without that type of loyal support.

I also want to give a shout out to Kensington Bank, as they will host Holiday Open House celebrations tomorrow (Friday); this takes place at the Elrosa location from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at their Belgrade location from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also! Next Friday, December 20, the Bonanza Valley State Bank hosts their Christmas open house at their bank lobby in Brooten from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The full Bonanza Valley area community calendar can be found online at the Bonanza Valley Voice website by clicking on this link: https://shorturl.at/NoHkh. Some upcoming events are always posted on page 2 of every newspaper issue.

Tonight, I will finally settle on a theme song for my winter sports podcasts. Unlike the past two winters, I can't find a song that just stands out and hits right. A Zach Bryan/Kasey Musgraves song is the lead candidate. Stay tuned!

Earlier tonight at Paynesville, the B-B-E Jaguars 8th grade girls' basketball team defeated Paynesville Area 28-25 to finish their regular season with a 9-2 record. They host the Central Minnesota Conference tournament this Saturday, December 14 with 7 teams coming to town.

Speaking of Paynesville...their girls' basketball team traveled to neighboring Eden Valley-Watkins tonight for a Central Minnesota Conference game. The Bulldogs, who were 0-5 coming into tonight, defeated the Eagles 57-42.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 12:
Brandon-Evansville 73, Browerville 46
Glencoe-Silver Lake 70, Dassel-Cokato 68
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 82, Laporte 25
Upsala 58, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 31
Moose Lake-Willow River 55, Barnum 22
Osakis 72, Swanville 43
Willmar 59, St. Cloud Area 18
MACCRAY 54, Lac qui Parle Valle 29
Pine River-Backus 64, Nevis 46
BOLD 75, Minneota 52
Central MN Christian 87, Dawson-Boyd 27
Benson 74, St. John's Prep 49

Area boys' basketball scores on December 12:
Montevideo 75, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 62
Lester Prairie 71, Eden Valley-Watkins 42
Central MN Christian 72, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 47
St. Cloud Cathedral 68, Royalton 46
Melrose Area 55, West Central Area 39
Holdingford 69, Pierz 51
Sauk Centre 75, BOLD 38
Redwood Valley 87, New London-Spicer 43
Brandon-Evansville 57, Parkers Prairie 53
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 60, Hancock 38
Minnewaska Area 67, Barnesville 62