Youth Basketball Saturday

Led by 4th grade head coach Kevin Gruber, the B-B-E Jaguars Class of 2034 boys' basketball team went 3-0 at their home tournament on Saturday in Brooten. They soundly defeated Kimball Area 28-12 and Benson 36-18 to pave their way to the championship game. In the finals, they faced a speedy Sauk Centre Mainstreeters team. In a back-and-forth affair with numerous ties and lead changes, the Jaguars won 25-22 to take first place.

Sauk Centre struck first with a steal and layup just a minute into the action. About a minute later, Brecken Dingmann scored in the paint for a tie game. With 13:30 left, Dingmann earned an assist when he passed downcourt to a speedy Cameron Gruber, whose fastbreak layup gave B-B-E their first lead of the game.

After the Mainstreeters tied it at 4-4, Tyson Tensen scored on a fastbreak shot with 10:05 left. A minute later, the game had its third tie with a 6-6 score. With 8:06 left, Dingmann's paint shot put the Jaguars in front 8-6. Almost 3 1/2 minutes passed before the next bucket was scored, and the Jaguars had a 10-6 lead after Asher Anderson scored on a rebound shot just inside the left block. Sauk Centre answered right away with a clean 12-footer.

Over 3 minutes passed in the game before the next bucket. With 22 seconds left, Tensen scored on the right block with a Gruber assist for a 12-8 lead. With 10 seconds left, Sauk Centre's paint shot made it a 12-10 halftime score.

The Mainstreeters tied it with an outside shot in the opening minute of the second half. With 13:42 left, Maddux Rooney's baseline shot broke the tie score. On their next possession, Sauk Centre exposed B-B-E's interior defense with an easy shot for the game's fifth tie. With 11:50 left, a fastbreak layup gave Sauk Centre a 16-14 lead. B-B-E answered right away on Gruber's 12-footer for a 16-16 tie.

Tensen's rebound shot gave B-B-E an 18-16 lead, but the Jaguars were outscored 4-0 across the next 3 minutes of the game. With 6:50 left, Dingmann's shot off the glass tied it at 20-20. Caleb Hernandez-Valdiviezo snared a huge rebound and sank it with 5:50 left to give the Jaguars a 22-20 lead. Nearly 3 minutes later, Sauk Centre got 3 straight offensive rebounds and converted the last for a tie game at 22-22.

Dingmann converted his defensive rebound into a putback for a 24-22 lead with 2:20 left. With 1 minute to go, Gruber converted one of two free throws for a three-point lead. The Jaguars played outstanding defense in the last 60 seconds to come out on top by the 25-22 final score.

B-B-E's 4th grade team includes 9 fourth graders and one third grader. Video from the championship game is being processed; it will be posted here at approximately 5 p.m.

Coach Gruber is a B-B-E Class of 2004 graduate who played for Hall of Fame Coach Dave Montbriand. In his senior year, the team overcame heavy graduation losses from the Class of 2003 plus an 0-5 start in December to land a spot in the Sub-Section 5A-South championship in March. With one of the program's best-ever section playoff performances, the Jaguars soundly defeated the Prairie Conference champion Osakis Silverstreaks 86-69 to earn B-B-E's third boys' basketball section finals appearance. In the Section 5A championship, the Jaguars played valiantly in a 62-54 loss to Bertha-Hewitt. Their final season record was 16-13.

Cameron Gruber's father is Coach Kevin Gruber, and Brecken Dingmann's father is Kurt Dingmann, who graduated in 2003 and also played for Coach Montbriand.