GAME DAY and more (UPDATES, RADIO coverage)

A big day lies ahead with postseason action taking place in Hinckley and St. Paul.

MAJOR afternoon update...Region 5A officials have already changed the venue (site) for Tuesday's subsection championship game to Foley high school. This is wonderful!!!! Now we have to get there!

At Xcel Energy Center, three members of the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team compete for hardware at the Class 1A individual state wrestling tournament. Noah Jensen at 107 pounds can battle back for as high as third place, while Brett DeRoo (160) and Carson Gilbert (215) are both in contention for state titles.

And shifting gears to basketball...
Coach Austin Rambow reported that the seeding for Section 6A has to be completed by 10 a.m. today. Shortly after 10 a.m., we should know the final seedings and the schedule for next week's boys' basketball playoffs.

UPDATE in the afternoon: please spread the word! Both local radio stations will carry today's playoff game in Hinckley. Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood (107.1 FM) also streams online with Brady Erdmann's coverage: https://www.kmgk1071.com. Also! Out of Norway Lake-Sunburg, 106.5 FM The Train will carry the game. Bill Dean's radio coverage can be heard online at: https://www.willmarradio.com/the_train.

Here's a video from Royalton on February 18:


The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team faces Upsala in the sub-section semifinals today after an obnoxious, ridiculous 2 1/2-hour drive to face Upsala at Hinckley-Finlayson high school. For what it's worth, Upsala also has an extensive drive, but they have the "luxury" of not being forced to drive through the 83 stoplights of the St. Cloud Metropolitan area. The Upsala team and fans have about a 100-minute-long drive to go 89 miles. The drive for us is 120 miles and at least 150 minutes of driving.

MEANWHILE...Braham, the top seed with a 21-5 overall record, has just 26 miles to drive to play today's game. Braham faces No. 5-seeded Swanville (13-12) at 12 p.m. in Hinckley. Swanville has to travel 99 miles with what is about a 2-hour long drive that includes traveling through Little Falls. That would be a challening drive to complete in under 120 minutes. THINK about it: Braham has a 30-minute drive time today, while Swanville has a 120-minute drive. The playoff site of Hinckley-Finlayson high school creates one of the most over-the-top terrible decisions I've seen in over 20 years of sports reporting by the powers-that-be who create the playoff brackets. This is far and away a "Top 5" bad decision in anything I've seen. It's absolutely wild that officials did not seek out a site that's at a minimum closer to St. Cloud. There's "fair" and there's "wrong" and this is wrong!

Upsala has a roster that includes "lights out" good players such as Dakota Soltis, who can go off for 20+ points if she gets on a tear. The Cardinals are 18-9 overall while having one of their better girls' basketball seasons in school history. They have earned great success in fastpitch softball in the past 3 years, and this year's girls' basketball team includes players with extensive state fastpitch tournament experience (2022 state appearance and then 4th at state in 2023). Last spring, Upsala went 17-7 overall and finished third in Section 6A after going 6 games deep in the postseason. In fastpitch softball, Upsala's team has played in 21 postseason games in the last 3 years. In the Prairie Conference, Upsala's fastpitch team tied with Swanville for the title last spring, and the Cardinals earned solo Prairie titles in their state tournament seasons of 2022 and 2023.

UPDATE: you can listen to the Braham vs. Swanville girls' basketball playoff game (noon tip-off) by clicking here to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_X5SIFp43A. After Swanville took a 2-0 lead, they committed three straight turnovers while facing Braham's fullcourt press. The Bombers then racked up 5 team fouls in the game's first 3 minutes, but they have a 5-4 lead.

With 14 minutes to go in the first half, the Bombers had 5 team fouls, and Swanville was tagged with their first team foul. Braham led 7-6 at that point. The underdog Bulldogs clearly came to play! It will be interesting to see how they fare against Braham's fullcourt pressure.

UPDATE at state wrestling! Noah Jensen (37-8) won a 20-8 major decision this morning against Pipestone Area freshman Lane Fruechte (34-7) to advance to the consolation bracket semifinals. Additional updates to follow here after 11 a.m. Update: Noah's next opponent will be Chatfield freshman Jameson Priebe, the bracket's No. 2 seed. Priebe is 40-3 going into this match.

Brett DeRoo's semifinal match should start sometime after 12 p.m.

Afternoon update: Brett DeRoo lost a tough one in his state semifinal match by a 7-1 decision to the bracket's No. 2 seed. He will battle in the consolation bracket and try to fight back to take third place at 160. DeRoo faces Canby senior Blake Giese in his consolation semifinal match.

In his 215-pound semifinal, Carson Gilbert won a 7-2 decision to advance to the state finals.

At 107, Noah Jensen won a 14-7 decision to advance to the third-place match at state. It's a grand achievement for the 8th grader in his first appearance at the individual state tournament!

BASKETBALL UPDATE: Braham defeated Swanville 67-58 in overtime to advance to the subsection finals. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 53-53. I've got extensive game notes to post tonight from that game. The B-B-E vs. Upsala game should get started at about 2:10 p.m. in Hinckley. Updates to follow!

In the first half, the Cardinals have jumped out to an early 12-4 lead. With 11 minutes to go, the Jaguars trail 12-6.

Halftime: Upsala 23, B-B-E 19. It as been a mighty struggle.

In the 2nd half, with 12:40 to go, the Cardinals have a 39 to 27 lead. This blog post is a wrap as of 4 p.m. A new blog post is coming later this afternoon with the girls' basketball final score.