Girls' basketball Jaguars knock down Royalton!

What an incredible road win!

In what was by far the biggest Central Minnesota Conference road win in years, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team upended Royalton tonight 58-53 to stay unbeaten in the league. The Royals fall to 4-6 overall and 3-1 in the CMC. Last season, Royalton went 28-1 with a loss in the Section 6AA championship game to Sauk Centre. In the CMC, they were a perfect 14-0.

The Jaguars fought tooth and nail through a difficult first half and trailed 32-29 at halftime.

Trailing 47-44 with under 7 minutes left, Kacey Fischer earned a three-point play to knot it up at 47-all.

Going inside of 4 minutes left, the Jaguars fell behind 49-47. With 2:30 left, Royalton's bench was hit with a technical foul. Kacey Fischer proceeded to make both technical free throws to force a 49-49 tie.

Incredible, lights-out defense down the stretch limited the Royals to just 4 points the rest of the way. The Jaguars led 58-51 in the final 30 seconds before Royalton's freshman sensation Chloe Reedy connected on 2 free throws with 2.5 seconds left. That was all she wrote.

More to come later. I have a lot of notes to comb through!

Let's back up briefly to earlier this evening with the boys' basketball game against Hancock. The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team hosted the Owls in a key Section 6A game. Down 30-21 at halftime, the Jaguars played valiantly against a super athletic Hancock team. Cold shooting from the floor and at the line was costly in a double-digit loss by a score of 66-53.

Hancock shot 44 percent from the floor, while the Jaguars made just 29 percent of their field goals. B-B-E was an abysmal 9-for-24 at the free throw line.

Here's the JV Jaguars in action against Hancock...with the game-winning shot featured:


Reid Dickhoff, a 5'10 guard, is the lone junior on the team. He scored with 7.1 seconds left and made a free throw to boot. JV game final score: B-B-E 54, Hancock 51.

I have to attack sports writing. Deadline is screaming at me; the printing press runs at 6 a.m.!