Border battle win! (VIDEO)

Updates coming to this blog post on Wednesday night...

In a game where they got better and better as the 36 minutes played out tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team won a hard-fought, high-flying border battle with visiting Paynesville Area by an 86-78 score. Winners of five straight games to this point, they are now averaging 70.4 points per game in their last 8 contests! Four players were in double figures for B-B-E tonight, with seniors Josh Walstrom (23 points) and Luke Illies (22 points) leading the way.

Here's a video featuring the game's tip-off and opening minutes tonight:


I won't have much to post here tonight, since it's the eve of publishing day at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. It will be fully updated on Wednesday.

How the first half played out...
The Jaguars jumped out to early leads of 5-0 and then 13-5 just shy of 4 minutes into the game. The Bulldogs then went on a 10-0 run, and a back-and-forth battle played out across the last 11 minutes of the first half. Three-pointers by Owen Roering and Luke Illies helped the Jaguars keep pace with a Paynesville team that entered the night averaging over 71 points per game.

After Taylor Pieper's pullup shot tied it at 23-23 with 8:30 left, the Bulldogs carved out leads of 31-26 and later 34-28 with just under 5 minutes remaining. Buckets by Austin Berge and Josh Walstrom cut it to 34-32, but Reed Johnson's three-pointer with 2:55 left made it a 37-32 deficit. Illies later scored inside the right block for a 38-37 lead with 2:05 left. Carter Flanders went 2-for-2 at the free throw line with 25 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a 42-40 advantage at the break.

The Jaguars started the second half with a lead-changing 7-0 run in 95 seconds of play. Paynesville tied the game at 47-47 on two free throws by Sam Brunner, but a 10-0 scoring run by B-B-E in just 75 seconds of play followed. Johnson knocked down a three-pointer to cut B-B-E's lead to 59-53, but Walstrom answered on the next possession with a three-pointer. Illies hit a three with 8:22 left for a 70-62 lead. The Bulldogs cut it to 70-67 with 7:38 left, and Flanders later went 2-for-2 at the line with 2:04 remaining to make it an 80-74 lead for the Jaguars. After Walstrom's layup with 1:38 left, Johnson buried a three-pointer with 1:17 left to make it an 82-78 score. The Jaguars got late free throws from Walstrom and Dominic Ramos for the 8-point win.

The Jaguars (10-15 overall) have now earned a 10-6 mark in their last 16 games after the season began with an 0-9 mark. During that 9-game losing skid, they averaged 55 points per game. B-B-E looks to continue their winning ways to finish the regular season when they travel to Hancock this Friday night for a non-conference sub-section game. The Owls (12-12 overall) had two straight wins to their credit coming into tonight's non-conference home game with former Pheasant Conference rival Ortonville.

In the Sub-Section 6A-South standings, the Jaguars are hovering in the No. 5 to No. 7 range as of tonight. The likely date for the playoff opener is Thursday, March 6 unless the Jaguars are the No. 7 seed. If that's the case, they will host a play-in round game on Monday, March 3 at 7 p.m. in Brooten. I honestly have no idea how the sub-section seeding would play out.

UPDATE: Hancock defeated Ortonville 67-57 on Tuesday night to improve to 13-12 overall heading into Friday's game with our Jaguars. The Owls finished in fourth place in the Little Eight Conference.

The Bulldogs take a 15-11 record into the Sub-Section 3AA-North tournament, where they are expected to be the No. 3 seed. In the CMC, they finished 10-4 in a tie for second place with Kimball Area. Paynesville Area is far and away an up-and-coming squad, as 76 of their 78 points tonight were scored by underclassmen. No kidding.

Here's a Wednesday night update...
I'll get an area scoreboard posted below on this blog post.

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website will undergo updates to its current list of articles. You can click over there now to see a video from the FFA milk relays held last Wednesday at the high school gym. Link: https://shorturl.at/uZl8X. Another video clip was posted last week featuring the FFA milk relays: https://shorturl.at/VNstp. I'll get college basketball notes added in a new blog post on Thursday morning.

Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on February 25:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 85, Kimball Area 83
Holdingford 85, Eden Valley-Watkins 45
Royalton 79, Maple Lake 28

Area boys' basketball scores on February 25:
Rockford Area 64, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 53
Spectrum 73, Sauk Centre 61
Albany 82, Little Falls 34
Osakis 59, St. John's Prep 48
West Central Area 70, BOLD 69
Hancock 67, Ortonville 57
Browerville 79, Parkers Prairie 61
Rothsay 75, New York Mills 47
Henning 74, Brandon-Evansville 51
Swanville 70, Bertha-Hewitt 46

Area girls' basketball playoff scores on February 25:
Central MN Christian-Prinsburg 55, Lakeview 33
MACCRAY 63, Minneota 62 (this is Minneota's earliest playoff exit since 2010; ironically, in 2010, MACCRAY was the team that bounced the Vikings out of the subsection playoffs)
New London-Spicer 72, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 27
Mesabi East 50, Pierz 40
Jackson County Central 72, Redwood Valley 56
Minnewaska Area 59, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 32

Border battle series sweep (VIDEO)

This blog post is being updated late on Saturday night after an evening at open gym...it has been a long, long day...non-stop movement for 14 hours straight! No kidding.

For at least three-quarters of the game tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team had their hands full in a border battle at Paynesville Area. After the Jaguars led 21-10 at halftime, the Bulldogs punched right back into the mix across the first 6 minutes of the second half. With 12:32 to go, senior Kylie Pauls went 2-for-2 at the free throw line to force a 25-25 tie.

Final score: B-B-E 53, Paynesville Area 42. It was a solid win in spite of ice cold 27.4 percent field goal shooting. They were solid at the free throw line by making 18 of 24 free throws.

With 9:31 to go in the second half, the Bulldogs led 32-29 on a fastbreak shot. Almost a minute later, Kacey Fischer's two free throws lifted the Jaguars ahead 33-32.

Here's action from the first half of tonight's game:


With 6:28 to go, Teagan Dingmann scored on a rebound shot of her own miss that brought a 37-37 tie. The Bulldogs later tied the game 39-39 with a bucket with 5:35 left. From that point, the Jaguars held the Bulldogs to just 3 more points.

The No. 10-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) Jaguars (16-7 overall) have now won four straight games. The Bulldogs fall to 7-15 overall (5-6 CMC).

In the latest QRF state rankings, the Jaguars stand at No. 18 in Class 1A. This puts them at No. 2 in the Sub-Section 5A-East standings behind Braham, who is 16-5 overall and No. 4 in the Class 1A QRF rankings.

COMING on Sunday...wresting playoff notes will be added in a new blog post.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on February 7:
Royalton 65, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 30
Kimball Area 54, Eden Valley-Watkins 29
Holdingford 57, Maple Lake 47 (played on Thursday, February 6 in Maple Lake)

Area girls' basketball scores on February 7:
Upsala 56, Swanville 51
Melrose Area 49, Holdingford 36
Bertha-Hewitt 59, Battle Lake 48
New London-Spicer 57, Glencoe-Silver Lake 48
BOLD 60, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 42
Ogilvie 68, Barnum 65
West Central Area 74, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 58
Dawson-Boyd 75, Benson 60

Area boys' basketball scores on February 7:
Border West 45, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 44
Benson 86, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 48
Montevideo 66, Sauk Centre 50
Brandon-Evansville 75, Battle Lake 40
Melrose Area 63, BOLD 59
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 70, Minnewaska Area 57
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 58, MACCRAY 55
Hancock 87, Ashby 55
West Central Area 71, Park Christian 64
Underwood 82, Parkers Prairie 51
Osakis 60, Little Falls 46
Kimball Area 49, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 43

Area boys' basketball scores on February 6:
Browerville 64, Border West 62

GAME NIGHT! Border battle!

It is GAME NIGHT in Jaguar Country!

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team hosts Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg in a non-conference border battle tonight. The game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood, and they stream online: https://www.kmgk1071.com. It is also PEP BAND night!

Game updates to follow...
At halftime, the Fighting Saints are ahead 37 to 25. The game was tied 17-17 with 8 minutes to go.

**With 3:07 to go in the game, the Fighting Saints are ahead 63 to 54.  The Jaguars had whittled a 13-point deficit down to 5 points.

Friday Night Lights VIII: defense rules the night, Jaguars win border battle (VIDEOS!)

This was not a game for the faint of heart!

While it did not technically go down to the wire, the B-B-E Jaguars football team did not have the game in hand against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg until quarterback Luke Illies took a knee in the final minute of the fourth quarter. They had just scored 14 unanswered points across the final 26 minutes of the 48-minute-long border battle. A game ruled by defense and offensive miscues was won by the Jaguars by a 14-3 score at Murdock.

Here's action from late in the 1st quarter last night (Wednesday) in Murdock:


More to come. I have many pages of notes to review from the game!

How the game developed...
The flow of the game was outlined soon after the game's opening kickoff. B-B-E started on their own 32-yard line, and Ethan Mueller caught an 8-yard pass. Good! On the next play, the Jaguars lost a fumble, which gave K-M-S the ball on B-B-E's 39-yard line with 11:16 left in the first quarter. On K-M-S's first series, they gained one net yard on three plays but got off a great punt. The chess match was underway, as the Jaguars started their second series back on their own 14-yard line. Two plays later, the Jaguars lost possession on another fumble.

Back on defense, the Jaguars got tough again, but K-M-S had advantageous field position with their second drive starting on the B-B-E 10-yard line. A solo tackle by Ethan Mueller on first down brought a 5-yard loss. Next was an incomplete pass, but quarterback Tyler Engelke got those yards back with a carry on the next play. This set up 4th-and-10, and the Fighting Saints elected to kick a field goal. The kick was just on the mark, barely, as the ball fell on the goal post and rolled over to the ground. K-M-S 3, B-B-E 0 was the resulting score.

Over 16 minutes of scoreless football went by after that field goal. The Jaguars swiped the lead away from K-M-S with 1:11 left before halftime when lineman Noah Kampsen earned an interception and ran it back for a 68-yard Pick Six touchdown. The resulting 6-3 score stood to halftime.

Here's a video featuring how that Pick Six went down...


The second half...
Two false start penalties hampered K-M-S on the first series of the third quarter. The Fighting Saints had driven just into B-B-E territory, but they later punted on 4th-and-14 on their own 48-yard line with four minutes gone. The first drive of the third quarter for the Jaguars ended after three plays by an interception near midfield. K-M-S had possession at their own 45-yard line, but their drive lasted just three plays and ended on a lost fumble which was recovered by Brett DeRoo with 5:08 left in the third quarter.

This put the Jaguars back in the driver's seat with just 44 yards to go. On second down, Jack Lundberg caught a 16-yard pass. Brett DeRoo followed that with a 9-yard catch, and the Fighting Saints then committed a dead ball penalty to convert 2nd-and-1. Now at the K-M-S 19, the Jaguars had all the momentum. DeRoo caught an 11-yard pass and had a bead on the end zone before being stacked up one yard short. With first down on the K-M-S one-yard line, a costly lost fumble stopped a great opportunity to score the game's first offensive touchdown. Instead, the Fighting Saints took over possession with 1:46 left in the third at their own 2-yard line.

Later in the game...K-M-S had possession for the 10th time of the game early in the fourth quarter. Near midfield, Brett DeRoo grabbed an interception with an 8-yard return. This gave B-B-E possession at K-M-S's 42-yard line with 7:04 left in the game. Nine plays later, DeRoo caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Luke Illies in the right corner of the endzone after he got a couple steps ahead of his defender. Harley Weber powered in the two-point conversion, and the Jaguars held a 14-3 lead with 2:47 to go.

After the kickoff that followed, the Fighting Saints reset their offense on their own 25-yard line. Their attempt for a big play on first down ended quickly when Kameron Hiltner grabbed an interception at the K-M-S 43-yard line.

Game statistics...
Luke Illies earned 10-of-18 passing marks for 114 yards. DeRoo caught 5 of those 10 receptions for 51 yards. Overall, B-B-E gained 219 yards with 105 of them on the ground. Their defense held the Fighting Saints to 115 net yards, 89 on the ground. Through the air, the Fighting Saints had 2-of-9 marks for just 26 yards.

Three Jaguars earned interceptions: Kampsen, Brett DeRoo and Kameron Hiltner. Hiltner's interception all but sealed the win for the Jaguars with 2:35 left in the game.

Mid-Northwest Gopher Gold District football scores in Week 8 on October 16:
Browerville 43, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 14
Benson 42, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0
Upsala/Swanville Area 37, West Central Area 14

Breaking news!
The Section 4A seedings have gone final this afternoon, and the Jaguars are the No. 2 seed for the upcoming playoffs. Both the Jaguars and top-seeded Upsala/Swanville Area received first-round byes. B-B-E's playoff opener is on Saturday, October 26 on the home field.

Section 4A football seedings:
1. U/SA
2. B-B-E
3. Browerville
4. Benson
5. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
6. Long Prairie-Grey Eagle

Friday updates:
A light recap of the past week in football news has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/p6XNr. Also! Don't forget tonight's supper and auction at Big Grove Lutheran Church in North Fork Township! The fun begins at 5 p.m. with their supper (serving Padua Pub beef sandwiches) plus the auction at 7 p.m.

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website community calendar has been updated as of this morning. I cleared out old events and added a couple new and updated the school board meeting date. They will meet on Tuesday, November 12, the day after Veteran's Day. You can find that website calendar by clicking on this short link: https://shorturl.at/wgmJ4. If you haven't bookmarked that webpage, please do so! It will quickly inform you on a host of upcoming LOCAL events across the Bonanza Valley area and Jaguar Country.

In volleyball news...the Jaguars are seeded No. 1 in Sub-Section 6A-South. Great! They open the playoffs on Wednesday, October 23 with a home match at 7 p.m. I'll get full details posted in a new blog post later tonight.

Area football scores in Week 8 on October 16:
MACCRAY 42, Yellow Medicine East 0
BOLD 66, Canby 20
Parkers Prairie 57, Pine River-Backus 0
Hancock 42, Ottertail Central 6
Royalton 42, Paynesville Area 8
Rock Ridge 19, Duluth East 14
Osakis 52, Maple Lake 8
Albany 52, Montevideo 7
Minneota 54, Dawson-Boyd 0
Kimball Area 42, St. Cloud Cathedral 7
Rockford 20, Sauk Centre 0
Border West 65, Brandon-Evansville/Ashby 18
Mountain Lake 52, Renville County West 13
Lakeview 20, Lac qui Parle Valley 19
Minnewaska Area 56, Melrose Area 14
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 20, Pierz 18
Annandale 35, New London-Spicer 3
Eden Valley-Watkins 24, Holdingford 6

GAME NIGHT! In Swift County! Border Battle!!! (VIDEO)

Thursday night note...I'm working on the Friday Night Lights VIII post early tonight. I posted one video below from the game to this blog post.

Kickoff at Murdock is at 7 p.m. tonight for this big border battle. Game updates to follow. I expect a tough game, but we will see!

GAME UPDATES...

Halftime: the B-B-E Jaguars football team erased a 3-0 deficit and are ahead 6 to 3 at halftime.

*Here's a video that started in the first minute of the game:


In the first quarter with 6:07 on the clock, the Fighting Saints kicked a 29-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

With 1:11 left in the second quarter, junior lineman Noah Kampsen rumbled into the endzone after earning an interception with a 68-yard return. It was an incredible sight, and he had plenty of help from his fellow Jaguar blockers. The two-point conversion was stopped about 2 yards short.

After the 3rd quarter: still a 6-3 score.

Final: 14-3 win! 

The Jaguars added one offensive touchdown on 4th-and-goal when Brett DeRoo caught a 4 yard pass from Luke Illies in the right corner of the endzone with 2:47 remaining in the game. Harley Weber powered in the 2 point conversion.

The Jaguars take a 7-1 record into the Section 4A playoffs, for which they have a first-round bye. The playoff opener will be on Saturday, October 26 in Belgrade with a 2:00 p.m. kickoff. Please spread the word!!

**This blog post is a wrap, as I am in Hutchinson now and have to get up at 6:00 a.m. to drive to Rochester Mayo for a check-up with my daughter. I have been blogging straight off of my cell phone tonight.

A complete Friday Night Lights XIII blog post will be added on Thursday afternoon after returning home from Rochester.

Good night!

**Update: Upsala/Swanville Area defeated West Central Area 37-14 in Barrett to finish undefeated in the regular season and claim the district title alone. It was an impressive win for the Patriots against a tough Knights squad that had a shot at earning a share of the title with a win.

Good GRIEF! Jaguars win in five at NL-S (VIDEOS)

A topsy-turvy five-set thriller played out tonight at New London-Spicer, where the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team came out as 3-2 winners to get on a four-match winning streak. It was an exciting win that helped put away the bad taste of last year's 3-0 loss by sweep at home to NL-S. That NL-S match was B-B-E's only regular-season, non-tournament loss (best-of-five matches).

Once it got to game five tonight, after the teams were in a 2-2 tie, the Jaguars scorched the home squad and coasted to a 15-7 win. The match lasted approximately 1 hour and 58 minutes. Game five was over in nine minutes flat. Overall, the Jaguars hit at a 21.7 percent clip with a trio of hitters in double digits: Adley Hagen (18 kills), Kacey Fischer (17) and Kadynce Haider (13). Kacey Fischer had 23 digs, and libero Ava Deters had 21 digs plus a team-high three service aces on 22-of-23 serving.

How tonight played out...
The Jaguars came out sluggish in game one and took a 25-17 loss. They played rather poorly for multiple stretches as the Wildcats expanded a 13-9 lead with a 5-0 run before ultimately going up 22-12 at one point. What was important down the stretch after they fell behind by 10 points (at set point) was a late rally that featured two kills by Adley Hagen and an ace block by Kamie Fischer. After an NL-S timeout, the Wildcats earned a kill off a block attempt to take the opening game.

Here's action from the middle of game two tonight as the Jaguars were improving their play and shaking off the poor game one performance:


The Jaguars played well through most of game two and showed they were a much better team than what they showed in game one. They trailed 22-20 before Coach Borgerding called a timeout. Kacey Fischer then hit back-to-back kills to tie it up. A net violation put them down 23-22, however, before Kadynce Haider's ace tip tied it back up. Kenna Lieser's ace block brought game point, and the Wildcats hit out of bounds (into the left referee stand) to end the game in favor of B-B-E by a 25-23 score.

You can watch the end of game two play out in this exciting video...


Game three seemed up for grabs, with B-B-E holding a 5-4 lead before falling back 8-6. They took an 11-9 lead and never trailed from that point as they got stronger down the stretch in a 25-19 game three win.

After taking the 2-1 set lead, the Jaguars built leads of 8-4 and 15-11 in game four before the Wildcats stormed back. An NL-S kill and back-to-back ace serves tied game four at 16-16. The Wildcats turned the tables on the Jaguars and forged a 20-17 lead before Kacey Fischer earned a kill, an ace serve and then another kill to tie it at 20-20. Trailing 23-21, Kadynce Haider knocked down a kill, but the Jaguars hit into the net to fall back 24-22. Haider followed with another kill to keep the set going, but the Jaguars hit into the net once again to fall 25-23.

The Jaguars take a 9-2 record into this Thursday's home match against Kimball Area (6-6). The Cubs defeated Litchfield tonight by a 3-0 margin.

Here's my post-match interview with Coach Borgerding tonight at NL-S:

Fun fact! on this night of this week two years ago, the Jaguars traveled to NL-S and won a 3-2 barn burner as well. On that night, where conditions were even warmer than they were tonight at NL-S, the Jaguars trailed 13-11 in game five before scoring the final four points in a thrilling 15-13 win. Allison Dingmann, Class of 2023, finished off the win with a huge ace block for the game winner. It was a night I will never forget. You can read a light blog recap that I posted later that night (September 6, 2022) by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/sIDsf. Three years ago, when NL-S traveled to our house, the Jaguars won 3-0 on another night I will never forget. It was the first time I was in a packed, full house gymnasium since the pandemic unofficially ended the previous spring in Jaguar Country. This makes us 3-1 in the last four years against our neighbors to the south.

In 2019, the Wildcats won 3-1 on their court against the Jaguars. In 2018, which was Coach Kevin Weller's final year as head coach, the Jaguars won by a 3-2 margin at our house with a 15-9 win in game five. Over the years this century, the NL-S vs. B-B-E volleyball matches have featured outstanding battles and making for a terrific rivalry. The Jaguars swept NL-S in New London in 2017, and they won 3-1 in Brooten in 2016. In 2015, the Wildcats won by a 3-2 margin on their home floor, and they swept the Jaguars in 2014 in Brooten during a season where they lost in the Section 3AA finals to powerhouse Marshall Area. The Jaguars won 3-1 in 2013 at New London (on September 24 that fall). In 2012, their matchup went five sets with the Jaguars winning 3-2 in Brooten (Coach Borgerding's senior year.) In 2010 and 2011, the Jaguars had 3-0 wins over NL-S.

Back in 2009, during a season when NL-S finished 31-3 overall and played in the Class 2A state tournament, they lost 3-2 to the Jaguars on their floor in New London. On September 15, 2008, the Jaguars won 3-1 against the Wildcats in Brooten during a season when they later took fourth place at the state tournament (Coach Weller's second year). In 2007, the Jaguars and Wildcats did not meet in a best-of-five match, but they did face off in the Willmar Cardinal Classic. The Jaguars won that match up by a 2-1 margin. If you tally all of this up, from 2008 through this year, the Jaguars are 5-1 in best-of-five matches with NL-S. Crazy!!! In summary, during best-of-five matches with NL-S from 2008 through today, the Jaguars hold an 11-5 record. None of this includes regular season tournament meetings between the teams, which has occurred multiple years (that's too much for me to look over tonight).

No rest for the restless! Here's my third fall sports show of this season:


I'll probably repost it again on Thursday in a new blog post. It does include one glaring, massive error about football. The program's 25-game losing streak did not stretch back to 2014. I have no idea where that came from. It was largely across the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons. In 2017, the Jaguars won their final 7 regular season games but lost in the section semifinals to start the losing streak that was halted in the 2021 season opener.

Area volleyball scores on September 10:
West Central Area 3, Montevideo 0
Renville County West 3, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 0
Browerville 3, Upsala 0
Maple Lake 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 0 (a quality Section 5AA win for the Irish, who improve to 5-3 overall)
Minneota 3, Dawson-Boyd 0
Parkers Prairie 3, Brandon-Evansville 0
Underwood 3, Ashby 0
BOLD 3, Melrose Area 2 (Warriors win game five 15-13)
MACCRAY 3, Yellow Medicine East 0
Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 3, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 1
Swanville 3, Bertha-Hewitt 1
Minnewaska Area 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 0
Sauk Centre 3, Benson 0 (Coach Jim Klaphake's Mainstreeters are 10-2 overall)

Volleyball Jaguars find success at Marshall (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team had a remarkable trip to Marshall over the weekend and came out of the 32-team Southwest Minnesota Challenge with an 8-2 overall record. The Jaguars recorded three wins in five matches at Marshall, all by 2-0 set scores. The losses were by narrow margins to tough Class 3A and 4A schools.

Match scores in Marshall...
Burnsville won 25-19, 25-23 in the first match of Friday night. The Blaze were a Class 4A state entrant as recently as 2022.

In the second match on Friday, Benilde St. Margaret's won 2-1 after claiming a 15-11 win in the third set. The Jaguars split the first two sets by scores of 18-25 and then 25-22. The Red Knights went 20-9 overall last year and took second (5-2) in the Metro West Conference after earning two regular season tournament titles. In 2022, the Red Knights went 25-8, won the Section 6AAA title and placed second at the state tournament.

To start action on Saturday bright and early at 8:30 a.m., the Jaguars swept Fergus Falls in two sets (25-17, 25-14). They finished out the tournament with straight set wins over Hutchinson (25-18, 25-14) and Perham (25-17, 25-17).

The Perham Yellowjackets are a strong Class 2A school who went 21-11 overall last year with a 3-1 loss to Wadena-Deer Creek in the Section 8AA championship. In the regular season, Perham finished 5-1 in the Heart O' Lakes Conference in a first-place tie with Hawley. All things considered, the Jaguars played terrific across both days and have some great momentum going into tomorrow's border battle at New London-Spicer.

For the record...the Jaguars have been traveling to Marshall for this tournament since 2010, which was when our head coach, Brittany Borgerding, was a sophomore on the team.

Here's a video that's approaching two weeks old...from the MACCRAY Wolverines match in Belgrade on Friday, August 30:


The MACCRAY Wolverines are currently 3-2 overall with a 1-1 record in the Camden North Conference. Their other loss besides the sweep by our Jaguars was by a 3-1 margin against perennial power Minneota in Clara City last Thursday.

Up next! This is BIG! the Jaguars put their 8-2 record on the line with a trip south to New London-Spicer for tomorrow's border battle. Be there!!! We need a huge crowd to support our team! The NL-S Wildcats also have an 8-2 overall record (how ironic!) after they placed second at the Lakeview Invitational in Cottonwood on Saturday. The Wildcats have what I'll call a "very high quality" win over Sub-Section 3AA-North rival Paynesville Area by a 3-0 sweep on September 3 at home. In addition to that, the Wildcats have a straight set win in tournament play against Maple Lake (on August 23).

JUST added to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website...
With the onset of fall soon here, it's time to get numerous area fall events on your calendar! One such event is the Brink's Beer Joint Turkey Fest, which is held each fall in scenic Swift Falls. This year, Turkey Fest will be on Saturday, September 21. You can read all the details plus see a throwback video from 2015 by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/XU0Zm.

My fall sports photo gallery folder are coming together...although I still have two more albums to add from August...yikes! Trying my best not to fall too far behind. Here's the link to see the current photo albums from August varsity action: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBE-Fall-Sports-2024.

ALSO coming on Tuesday...the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team hosts St. John's Prep in a Prairie Conference dual at 4 p.m. at the high school courts. They will look to avenge a 4-3 loss to SJP on August 27 at the Osakis triangular.

Border battle and radio coverage

Tonight's home border battle in Brooten against Paynesville Area is being aired on 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake/Sunburg. You can listen to Bill Dean's audio stream from anywhere with a web connection here: https://www.willmarradio.com/the_train. The Bulldogs, 13-5 overall, enter tonight's Central Minnesota Conference contest just one game out of first place at 6-1; the state-ranked Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles lead the conference with a 7-0 mark. EV-W is playing at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City tonight.

With 6:30 left in the first half, Luke Illies's shot in the paint gave the Jaguars a 21-18 lead. At halftime: Paynesville Area 34, B-B-E 31.

At Royalton, the wrestling team has a 12-9 lead through 133 pounds against host Royalton/Upsala. **Update: the wrestlers have ran away with the dual! Through 189 pounds, the Jaguars hold a 39-9 lead.

I'll get a final score and other updates posted in a new blog post after 9:30 p.m.

Doubleheader split at Sauk Centre (VIDEOS, UPDATED)

An exciting night of border battle action played out at Sauk Centre high school tonight with Hoops for Hope as the feature event.

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team had a tough stretch in the closing minutes against the No. 10-ranked Mainstreeters. The length and size of Sauk Centre wore the Jaguars down as the home team won 76-56.

A three-pointer by Brooklyn Fischer with 6:08 left before halftime got them within three points, down 26-23. Sauk Centre extended the lead to 30-23 with two shots in the paint, and Brooklyn then drained another three with 3:07 to go to make it a four-point game. Cierra Kortan answered right away with a three-pointer, but Anna Jaeger's three-pointer with 2:15 left made it a two-possession game again at 33-29.

After the Jaguars fell back 38-30, Jaeger knocked down a three on the right wing with just 8 seconds to spare to make it a 38-33 deficit at halftime.

The Mainstreeters held leads of 7 to 9 points at times across the first 9 minutes of the second half, and the Jaguars battled but could not cut it to less than 5 points. Down 53-43 with under 12 minutes left, Bree Thieschafer's three-pointer and then a layup by Adley Hagen made it 53-48 with 10:44 to go. Across the next 3 1/2 minutes, though, Sauk Centre used a 10-0 run to quell B-B-E's momentum. The Jaguars suffered a five-minute long field goal scoring drought. Brooklyn Fischer's layup with 5:42 left cut it to 63-51. The Mainstreeters had one last scoring burst with a 7-0 run to extend it to 70-51 with 3:12 left on a downtown three-pointer by Kortan.

The Mainstreeters have been playing extremely well as of late, as they recently beat No. 4-ranked (Class 2A) New London-Spicer last Saturday the 20th; they've won 8 straight and are 14-3 overall.

**Here's a video from late in the first half of the girls' basketball game:


The Jaguars shot 42 percent from the floor but cooled off in the second half with just 28 percent shooting. They were 6-of-12 on the arc in the firsf half but made just one out of 7 three-point shots in the second half. They went a cold 13-of-24 at the line.

Next: the girls' basketball team (10-8) travels to Kimball Area next Tuesday, January 30.

After a large group photo with all grades 9-12 basketball players on both teams' boys' and girls' squads, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team played an incredible game against the No. 10-ranked Mainstreeters. After building an initial 10-0 lead, the Jaguars had no let up in their defensive intensity as the first half played out. A three-pointer by Hayden Sobiech with 8:57 to go gave them a 23-7 lead, with B-B-E also getting two early threes by Josh Walstrom. Sobiech's three-point play made it 26-9 with 7:06 to go, and Luke Illies later knocked down a three at the top of the key for a 31-15 lead with 5:02 to go.

Illies got a steal and followed it with a slam dunk for a 37-15 lead, and Kaden DeRoo made two free throws and later a layup to make it 39-22.

The Mainstreeters got a huge lift by back-to-back threes by sophomore guard Jacob Drevlow in the closing minute. At halftime, the Jaguars led 39-28.

Here's a video featuring part of the middle of the first half of the boys' basketball game tonight:


Final score: B-B-E 71, #10 Sauk Centre 56. The Jaguars played lights out defense from wire to wire against a quick, physical and high-scoring Mainstreeters squad that is currently challenging for the West Central Conference title. They are coached by Kevin Kuefler, B-B-E Class of 2011 graduate who helped lead his Jaguars to the Class 1A state championship game his senior year.

Luke Dingmann had a career night against tough, pressure defense applied by the Mainstreeters, tallying 23 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Junior guard Josh Walstrom gave a huge boost with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

A key difference in the game was B-B-E's 50 percent field goal shooting compared to 34 percent by the Mainstreeters.

Next: the boys' basketball team (10-6) has a huge, huge rematch with Paynesville Area in Brooten next Thursday in Central Minnesota Conference action.

*Saturday morning update: the Jaguars (boys) have moved up to No. 2 in the Sub-Section 6A-South QRF rankings. They have been hovering in the No. 3 position for the past few weeks. Brandon-Evansville slipped to No. 3, and they just suffered an 81-59 loss to Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, one of the top teams in the north half of Section 6A.

Area girls' basketball scores on January 26:
New London-Spicer 81, Montevideo 36
Minnewaska Area 44, BOLD 36
Melrose Area 55, Benson 42
Eden Valley-Watkins 55, Paynesville Area 46 (a Central MN Conference game, with the Eagles snapping a 4-game losing skid)
Braham 60, Maple Lake 20
Brainerd 51, Willmar 43
Browerville 58, Swanville 54
Osakis 39, Upsala 38
Central MN Christian 63, MACCRAY 25
Lakeview 59, Renville County West 52
Minneota 71, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 44

Area boys' basketball scores on January 26:
Watertown-Mayer 59, New London-Spicer 58
Dassel-Cokato 63, Litchfield 50
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 66, Kimball Area 53 (a Central MN Conference game at Grove City)
Albany 63, Melrose Area 57 (this was a key Section 6AA match up between neighboring rivals)
Border West 63, Underwood 50
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 81, Brandon-Evansville 59
Rothsay 69, Ashby 55
Battle Lake 67, Parkers Prairie 64
West Central Area 60, Montevideo 46
Osakis 72, Little Falls 69

A varsity split (VIDEO)

Well...we went 1-1 tonight.

On the home court against Minnewaska Area, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team suffered a roughly 7-minute scoring drought from the latter part of the first half and then the first 3 minutes of the second half. It was rough. In that span, the Lakers surged ahead from a 20-15 deficit to take a 29-20 lead. That 14-point swing was too much to overcome, and the Jaguars suffered their second straight loss. They've both been border battles. Final: Minnewaska Area 49, B-B-E 41.

The Lakers, who had just lost 47-45 two nights earlier at Paynesville Area, improved to 5-3 overall. They are a member of Sub-Section 3AA-North along with the Bulldogs.

The Jaguars had a 7-2 lead through the first 5 minutes of the game. The lead grew to 18-11 later in the first half. With about 2:56 left, Bree Thieschafer's layup gave the Jaguars a 20-15 lead, but the Jaguars would not score again until 3 minutes had passed in the second half.

Overall, the Jaguars shot an ice-cold 26 percent from the floor tonight. They went 10-of-17 (58 percent) at the free throw line. Junior Bree Thieschafer led the way with an incredible effort of 16 points and 10 rebounds.

*Here's a video featuring the starter introductions, game tip-off and the first 4 minutes of action:


Normally I am unable to do any reporting on what were formerly known as "preliminary games" which today we speak of as the JV and C-squad games. In the girls' C-squad game, the Jaguars prevailed 29-25, and in the JV game, the Jaguars won 46-21.

NEXT: the girls' basketball team travels to St. Cloud Apollo high school for an 11 a.m. tip-off on Friday, December 29 against Cass Lake-Bena. The Panthers (4-1) are one of the top competitors in Section 8A. One week ago tonight (Dec. 14), CL-B lost at Nevis 61-58. Nevis is a top competitor in Section 5A with our Jaguars.

At Minnewaska Area, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team got back in the win column while snapping a three-game losing skid. It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end the Jaguars won by one possession: 68-66. They had a 65-63 lead with 25 seconds to go. The halftime score had the Jaguars up 38-33. Senior Kaden DeRoo led the Jaguars with 20 points. Overall, the Jaguars shot 44 percent from the floor, but they were a mild 56 percent at the line (13-for-23).

NEXT: the Jaguars (2-3) travel to St. John's University on Friday, December 29 to face former section rival Nevis. Tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m. I'll update this blog post again after 10:30 p.m.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 21:
New London-Spicer 72, Eden Valley-Watkins 32
Fridley 58, Willmar 41
BOLD 60, Springfield 27
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 43, Litchfield 36
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 53, Paynesville Area 37
Minneota 63, MACCRAY 58
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 61, Canby 45

Tonight is basketball night!

Tonight's game in Belgrade will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. As I type this, Brady is already on the air! It's almost game time! His coverage can be heard at https://kmgk1071.com. The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is hosting Minnewaska Area in a non-conference border battle! I expect a very tough game.

UPDATE: with 9:42 left, the Jaguars have an 11-7 lead on a shot in the paint by Kacey Fischer.

At halftime in Belgrade: the score is tied 20-20! Oh, boy! This is a battle.

Time to get ready for tip-off, which should come at about 7:18 p.m. Also tonight, the boys' basketball team is playing at Minnewaska Area high school.

Halftime in Melrose

We have a grinder going in Melrose tonight for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team's season opener! It's a border battle and more as the Jaguars attempt to stay hot against non-conference opponents as they were last year. Tonight's game is being broadcast on 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake-Sunburg! Thanks, Bill Dean!! (Link: https://www.willmarradio.com/calendar/train_sports)

Through the first four minutes, the Jaguars held a 9-2 lead with a 9-0 scoring run. After that they went stone cold, however, and at halftime the Dutchmen hold a 25-21 lead. B-B-E has made just 6 of 17 free throws in the first half.

The second half is set to begin at 20:16 from Melrose Area high school.

More to come after the game in a new blog post!!!

Volleyball clash for the ages! What a night! Jaguars are sole CMC champions! (VIDEOS!)

WAS THAT CRAZY, OR WHAT!!?!?!

Through two sets in tonight's Central Minnesota Conference match, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team looked mostly flat and disheveled as they took on bordering rival Paynesville Area in a match that still had big implications. The Bulldogs entered the night just one game out of first place, and a win would have brought a tie for the CMC title for both squads. The match ultimately played out in truly wild, see-saw fashion as the teams traded wins the entire way. Trailing 2-1 in sets, the Bulldogs dominated game four to force a fifth set. B-B-E had the upper hand for most of the final game to claim a 15-10 win and take the match 3-2 to finish 7-0 in the CMC! I still have to tally up how many conference titles the program has earned, solo and shared. This program makes me work, and this NEVER GETS OLD! Not for one second.

Paynesville Area finished second in the CMC with a 6-1 record. Royalton took third place with a 4-3 record. They lost tonight in a 3-1 match to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. CMC match results from tonight are added at the end of this blog post.

Before getting to the nitty gritty on the volleyball match, it must be stated very clearly how overwhelming, unforgettable and unbelievable the entire evening was, especially for the Dustin and Tiffany Breitbach family. There is so much that can be said here, but what everyone needs to know is that our little B-B-E community came together in a truly marvelous way to give the Breitbachs a huge, huge lift with both an enormous financial gift and also a spiritual lift with an untold level of prayers and well wishes as Tiffany fights for her life with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Through various fundraisers that took place today and in days leading up to today, the Breitbachs received a donation of roughly $11,000. Almost $6,700 of that was raised through today's silent auction. There are simply no words to fully explain how incredible that is. And lest anyone forgets, including me! Breitbach was a key leader on the very first B-B-E Jaguar team to advance to a state tournament. She was a senior member of the 2005 volleyball squad that won the Section 6AA title to punch through to state.

And how about tonight's volleyball match...!
The Bulldogs held the upper hand for nearly the entire first set, as B-B-E played uphill starting from a 3-1 deficit. The Jaguars fought for ties at 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 7-7 and 11-11. The Bulldogs surged later in that set and built multiple three-point leads. After the Jaguars trailed 18-16, the Bulldogs scored three straight to lead 21-16. Brooklyn Fischer's kill brought a badly needed side out, but the Bulldogs got a kill to take a 22-17 lead. B-B-E then went on an incredible and unforgettable comeback to claim a 25-23 win.

Game two was tough to watch, as the Bulldogs led 3-0 right away and expanded that to 13-2 before the Jaguars began clawing their way back. Paynesville's lead shrunk to 22-19 before they closed it out with three straight points in a 25-19 win.

Here's action from later in game two, where the Jaguars pulled within 22-19...


The Jaguars played much, much better in game three and came out of an early 4-1 deficit to lead 14-7 after Brooklyn Fischer had back-to-back kills. The lead grew to 19-11 and then 21-12 as the Jaguars eventually won the set by a 25-15 score. They hit at an incredible 34.6 percent clip in that set.

As good as the Jaguars looked in game three, the Bulldogs appeared the better unit throughout most of game four and once again took a 3-1 lead out of the gate. The Jaguars rattled off four straight points for a 5-3 lead, but the Bulldogs then scored three straight to regain the upper hand. They pushed further ahead to a 15-9 lead to force B-B-E into their first timeout. Paynesville had an 8-0 run going that put them up 19-9 before Kacey Fischer's kill gave the Jaguars a side out. B-B-E fell back 24-11 and then went into their final timeout. A late surge of four straight points from two Brooklyn Fischer kills and two Kacey Fischer ace serves made it 24-15. The Bulldogs finished off the set with a final kill to tie the match at two sets each.

Game five! As good as it gets...
A perfectly-placed tip by Kylie Weller and an ace serve by Kenna Lieser gave the Jaguars a 2-1 lead early in game two. Back-to-back errors put them behind 3-2, however, before a long hit by Paynesville tied the set at 3-3. Kamie Fischer's ace serve and a kill by Kadynce Haider put the Jaguars ahead 5-3. Paynesville cut it to 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6 before Brooklyn Fischer's kill and Weller's ace serve put the Jaguars ahead 9-6. Another huge kill by Haider in the middle made it 11-8, and the Jaguars were able to cruise from there and play through two Paynesville timeouts while earning the final two points in a crazy 15-10 win.

AND!!!! Here is the complete game five! I thought there's no reason to not post it right away...this was crazy!


For the record! Game scores were 25-23, 19-25, 25-15, 15-25, 15-10.

Paynesville Area takes an 18-5 record into the Section 3AA-North playoffs, where they are the No. 1 seed. They finished 6-1 in the CMC to take second place alone. The last season the Bulldogs defeated the Jaguars was in 2017, when B-B-E went 5-2 in the CMC. In 2018, Paynesville Area gave the Jaguars a huge, huge gift when they earned a 3-2 upset win over Maple Lake on October 2. The Irish later defeated B-B-E in a 3-0 sweep on October 11 to finish as co-champions with the Jaguars.

AND here's the conference championship tally! This year's CMC title marks the 18th time in B-B-E history that the volleyball team has won a share or all of a conference title. The first title was earned with a perfect 14-0 record in the West Central South Conference in 1994. Since 2000, when the Jaguars went 8-0 to claim their first CMC title, they have won a whopping 16 conference titles! That makes it easier to count the years they were not conference champions...which were 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2020.

Of B-B-E's 18 volleyball conference titles, 12 have been solo crowns.

NEXT! It is playoff time! Yes, the playoffs are just around the corner. It's really hard to believe. I vividly remember the trip to MACCRAY in the second match of the season way back in late August. Now that is so long ago. The Jaguars (20-5-1) enter the postseason and will host a Sub-Section 6A-South quarterfinal match on Wednesday, October 25 at 7 p.m. in Brooten.

Central Minnesota Conference volleyball scores on October 17:
Maple Lake 3, Kimball Area 2
A-C-GC 3, Royalton 1

Other video will be posted in the morning, as much of the good stuff was recorded on my cell phone. It's now time to get the Bonanza Valley Voice ready for press!!

A win and a loss (VIDEO)

On the road in a sub-section matchup with Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, the No. 7-ranked B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team saw their seven-game winning streak snapped with a fleet-footed Fighting Saints coming out on top 74-71. A late three-pointer by Luke Illies drew the Jaguars within one at a 72-71 deficit in the final seconds.

K-M-S improves to 18-5 overall with their fifth straight win, while the Jaguars fall to 17-4.

On the home floor for Parents Night, the No. 12-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team rebounded from Tuesday's tough loss to Royalton by defeating Paynesville Area 47-35 in Central Minnesota Conference action. At halftime, the Bulldogs led 22-18. B-B-E had trailed 15-3 with 9:30 to go before halftime, and they eventually tied the game with 11:52 left in the second half on two Brooklyn Fischer free throws. Paynesville's final lead of the game came with 11:40 left on two Katie Uhlenkamp free throws for a 30-28 advantage.

*Here's a short video clip from the first half tonight:


Sidebar: in the JV girls' basketball game, the Bulldogs and Jaguars battled through two overtime periods! It was crazy. The six minutes of overtime action lasted over 20 minutes. Unreal. Paynesville took a 37-33 lead in the final minute of the second overtime period with two bonus free throws. Then with 47 seconds left, Ava Deters squared up on the left wing and buried a three-pointer! Then with about 19 seconds left, Grace Jackson stole the ball near midcourt, sped down court and hit a close-range shot off the glass for a 38-37 lead with 15 seconds to go. Final score: B-B-E 39, Paynesville 37 in 2 OT!

The girls' basketball Jaguars shot a season-low 25 percent from the floor but went a solid 78 percent (15-of-19) at the charity stripe.

UP next: the girls' basketball team hosts Pine River-Backus for a section contest on Monday, February 20 for Seniors Night.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on February 17:
Kimball Area 50, Royalton 47
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 54, Eden Valley-Watkins 42

Area girls' basketball scores on February 17:
Upsala 56, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 24
New London-Spicer 57, Glencoe-Silver Lake 33
Pierz 36, Little Falls 34
No. 15 Kelliher/Northome 62, No. 7 Nevis 56
Annandale 54, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 26
Watertown-Mayer 54, Litchfield 35
Parkers Prairie 47, Browerville 43
Sauk Centre 58, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 34
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 74, Hinckley-Finlayson 32
Mayer Lutheran 61, Minneota 43
South Ridge 58, East Central 28
Park Rapids Area 61, Pine River-Backus 39
New York Mills 58, Verndale 42
Henning 67, Bertha-Hewitt 46
Wadena-Deer Creek 62, Sebeka 42

Area boys' basketball scores on February 17:
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 67, Annandale 60
Eden Valley-Watkins 72, Paynesville Area 61 (a CMC game, and the Eagles now hold first place alone in the conference)
Melrose Area 60, Montevideo 47
Glencoe-Silver Lake 76, New London-Spicer 59
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 79, Benson 48
Little Falls 59, Pierz 56
Underwood 36, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 31
West Central Area 80, Minnewaska Area 46
Park Christian 73, Brandon-Evansville 47
Cass Lake-Bena 98, Nevis 83
Border West 80, Hancock 57

Another 2-0 night on the courts! (VIDEO)

The basketball teams each earned varsity wins tonight on their respective home courts.

In a Central Minnesota Conference game, the No. 7-ranked B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team faced Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. After building a 40-30 halftime lead, the Jaguars won by a final score of 70-58 for their sixth straight win. Junior Luke Dingmann scored his 1,000th career point late in the first half as the game developed into an all-out track meet. Catch video of that below.

The first half started out as a real grinder. How much of a grinder? To put it into perspective: with 12:55 to go, the Falcons gained a 6-3 lead on a layup by junior guard Kyler Pickle, who finished with a game-high 25 points (5-for-6 three-point shooting). Over those first 5 minutes, all the Jaguars had to their credit offensively was a three-pointer by Brady Schwinghammer with 15:02 on the clock that put the Jaguars in front 3-2. With 11:56 left, Kaden Pieper scored on a transition shot for a 7-6 lead. Pieper's three-pointer with 11:05 left made it a 12-8 lead, and by that point both teams started heating up from the floor as the track meet ensued.

Later in the half, with 3:13 left, Luke Dingmann scored on a drive off of the left wing to reach 1,000 career points. See below.

Here's a video from the first half of the boys' basketball game:


Around the 3:00 mark on the video, Dingmann reaches that lofty mark. He is just a junior! B-B-E has now had juniors surpass 1,000 career points in back-to-back seasons. Current senior Kaden Pieper passed 1,000 points on January 21, 2022 at home against Pine River-Backus.

The Jaguars (16-3, 8-2) had very balanced scoring with 4 players in double figures: Brady Schwinghammer with 21 points (five three-pointers), Kaden Pieper with 18 points, Hayden Sobiech with 14 points and Luke Dingmann with 12 points. Overall, the Jaguars shot 41 percent from the floor with a 16-of-22 mark at the free throw line. They remain one game out of first place in the CMC, as both Paynesville and Eden Valley-Watkins won their games tonight to improve to 9-1 each.

NEXT: the boys' basketball team travels to Maple Lake next Thursday, February 16.

In their home contest tonight, the No. 6-ranked B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team defeated Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 59-48 in a border battle for their fifth straight win. The opening stage of the game saw the Fighting Saints hold early one to two-possession leads. With 5:50 to go, Bree Thieschafer made two bonus free throws to lift the Jaguars in front 16-15. At halftime, they held a slim 27-26 lead but came out strong in the second half with Tiyana Schwinghammer scoring just 12 seconds in on a layup. Those final 18 minutes became very physical, and the Jaguars (17-3) withstood a stiff defensive challenge while scoring 19 points above K-M-S's defensive average. They survived a cold shooting night (35 percent on field goals) by making 19 out of 26 free throws.

The Fighting Saints (16-6) are currently the No. 2-ranked team in Sub-Section 6A-South behind state-ranked Hancock.

NEXT: the girls' basketball team hosts Royalton for a CMC battle next Tuesday night. The Royals (12-8, 7-4) defeated A-C-GC 58-56 at Grove City last night.

Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on February 10:
Paynesville Area 73, Kimball Area 52
Holdingford 61, Royalton 58 (Huskers earn their second CMC win of the season and snapped a 5-game losing skid)
Eden Valley-Watkins 68, Maple Lake 32

More to come. Additional video is uploading. I am really hopeful to finally record another sports show! Right now it's time for my final meal of the day. This has been a long, long night.

Another crazy, huge, big week ahead (VIDEOS added)

The excitement will come in waves upon waves in the coming weeks. It will not let up for hopefully 2 more months!!! It is possible!

One huge event is on the horizon on Tuesday, when our B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team heads down Highway 55 for a border battle with the conference rival Paynesville Area. The Bulldogs are 11-4 overall and the No. 2-ranked team in Sub-Section 3AA-North at the moment.

Another game to circle on the calendar is Thursday night, when our B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team hosts first-place and No. 12-ranked Holdingford for a Central Minnesota Conference battle. The Huskers are 12-3 overall and 6-0 in the CMC. Their 12-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday with an 81-55 loss at Crosby-Ironton (9-5).

More to come. My Sunday was another crazy busy day. It was a joy to spend the day at BOLD high school in Olivia to watch four games featuring our Class of 2029 girls' basketball players (sixth grade) with the first game at 11 a.m. and the final game at 5 p.m.!

*Here's a video featuring Louie Tensen in action at 120 pounds in Howard Lake:


*Here's Tanner Viessman in his 152-pound consolation bracket match on Saturday:


The wrestling team's next action is at the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg triangular in Kerkhoven on Thursday, January 26 starting at 5 p.m.

For parents out there, I just ran across a story on my news feed about parenting...it included this nugget!!!! Wrap this around your head = According to Wadsworth (the guy interviewed in the story), “The hardest part of parenting is not rescuing your kids constantly.”

Girls' basketball romps on opening night border battle (VIDEOS*)

*More video has been added to this blog post on Wednesday afternoon, and an area scoreboard was posted on Thursday morning.

AND SO IT BEGINS!

The highly-anticipated 2022-2023 girls' basketball season in Jaguar Country is off and running. The season opener tonight featured a bona fide border battle against Melrose Area on our home floor. The Dutchmen were 6-21 a year ago and 2-10 in the West Central Conference. Additional video clips from the game have been posted below on Wednesday. 

**Here's the team's five seniors who so graciously obliged my interview request just before they donned their jerseys and hit the court for the season opener. It is such a distinct honor to cover this team...


And as I was ill-prepared for that whole interview, I later learned that in league play the Jaguars in fact lost to Hancock last summer, but a week later at state they defeated the defending state champion Owls.

**Here's the starter introductions:


*Here's a video clip from the first half of tonight's game:


**Here's a great play when Allie Dingmann makes a three-pointer on a Tiyana Schwinghammer assist after the latter got bottled up on the right block:


Allie Dingmann's three-pointer came with 15:36 on the clock in the first half and gave the Jaguars an early 11-5 lead.

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team had an impressive showing for the season opener tonight against visiting Melrose Area. After a somewhat sluggish start, the Jaguars jumped out to a 30-16 halftime lead and played a much stronger second half with a final score of 68-35. An early 13-2 run pushed them out to a 13-5 lead in the game's first five minutes. To start the second half, the Jaguars outscored the Dutchmen 11-1 in the first 3 1/2 minutes to set the tone for the second half.

B-B-E's defense limited the Dutchmen to just 8 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.

Abby Berge led the Jaguars with 22 points, while Harley Roering finished with 13 points after scoring seven in the first half. Tiyana Schwinghammer rebounded from a three-point first half to finish with 11 points as the third Jaguar in double figures. The senior trio also led the team with 6, 5 and 4 steals, respectively. From the floor, the Jaguars shot a solid 43 percent while making just three of 16 three-point attempts in the game. From the line, the Jaguars made 13 of 18 free shots, and a total of 10 Jaguars found the scoring column.

Next: defending conference co-champion Kimball Area looms large on the horizon as the Jaguars travel for their next game, which is one week from tonight. It's a huge game that the Jaguars are excited about! The road trip continues with a game at the other co-champion last year, Holdingford, on Friday, December 9.

I'll get more video added later on Wednesday afternoon. I managed to pull off a 16 page newspaper this week. It included 31 musical photos. No kidding.  

Area girls' basketball scores on November 29:
K-M-S 55, A-C-GC 41
New London-Spicer 70, West Central Area 43
Osakis 48, Paynesville Area 44
Dawson-Boyd 67, Benson 39
BOLD 71, Yellow Medicine East 47
Lac qui Parle Valley 68, Minnewaska Area 47
MACCRAY 60, Ortonville 15
Hutchinson 55, Litchfield 48

Step II: moving on to the 'Ship! B-B-E Jaguars land sub-section finals berth! (VIDEOS!)

They are heading on! Moving on to the 'SHIP! THIS NEVER GETS OLD. NOT FOR ONE SECOND!

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team won in three sets tonight against a scrappy, hustling and determined K-M-S Fighting Saints squad. The sub-section semi border battle featured a near-packed gymnasium with deafening crowd noise at times. It was playoff volleyball at its best on our home court! The Fighting Saints play in the completely stacked, brutally tough Camden Conference and have seen just about everything there is to see on a volleyball court. That showed all night, as they did not back down from B-B-E's relentless attack. The Jaguars had to elevate their level of play all night long, and they did. Terrific performance!

The Fighting Saints finish 12-17 overall. They had eight seniors on the roster.

When and where do they play next? Read further below on this blog post to see that! And how many sub-section championship berths has our volleyball program earned? I'll tell you how many: 20! YES! That's 20. B-B-E's volleyball program now has earned 20 sub-section finals appearances in school history dating back to the first time they achieved that feat in 1994. Of those previous 19 appearances, I was fortunate enough to witness 16 of them! As I said earlier and have said many times before: this never, ever gets old!!!

**Here's footage from the end of game one tonight:


The Fighting Saints were what volleyball technicians would call an "in system" unit as the match got underway. They were firing with a high level of energy and enthusiasm while enjoying a great following of fans. Their passing was crisp, they had outstanding serve-receive and their blockers were meeting what B-B-E's attackers were dishing out. Two early kills put K-M-S ahead 3-2, and they had back-to-back kills for a 5-3 lead. K-M-S later had a kill and then an ace block to go up 7-4. Enter middle hitter Allison Dingmann, who knocked down a kill for a badly-needed side out. Ava Mueller then crushed an attack into a block attempt for a kill, and she hit for a second straight kill to tie it at 7-7. The Jaguars were rolling! The scoring streak reached eight in a row with Kylie Weller rattling off three straight ace serves to put the Jaguars in front 12-7. Coach Molenaar needed a timeout.

Out of that early timeout, K-M-S got an ace block for a side out. Mueller quickly knocked down a kill for a 13-8 lead. K-M-S had back-to-back hitting errors, and a kill by Brooklyn Fischer made it 17-9. Mueller had back-to-back kills to bring game point, and a Fighting Saints hitting error finished the game in favor of the Jaguars by a 25-12 score.

**Here's a video from the middle portion of game two tonight:


That previous video begins with the Jaguars ahead 17-12 after Anna Jaeger earned an ace serve. The video ends with the Jaguars holding a 21-15 lead.

Game scores for the night were 25-12, 25-19, 25-18. The Jaguars had a stellar night at the net with 41 kills on 109 attacks and just eight hitting errors! Wow! That made for a 30.3 percent hitting mark to go with 10 ace serves, 6 solo blocks and 2 block assists. In game three, senior Ava Mueller eclipsed the 1,000 career kills mark. What an achievement for her and the team!

**And the Jaguars take the court tonight!:


NEXT: the Jaguars (23-6) advance to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship, which will be at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday, November 3 at Fergus Falls high school. Their opponent will be No. 2-seeded Brandon-Evansville. The Chargers won 3-0 tonight against No. 3-seeded Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley; game scores were 25-19, 25-22, 28-26. Brandon-Evansville is 17-10 overall. They finished 7-2 in the 10-team Little Eight Conference, which was good for third place alone ahead of Underwood and Parkers Prairie (tied for fourth at 6-3 each).

**And here's a video uploaded late Friday night featuring senior Ava Mueller talking about tonight's win:


Sub-Section 6A-North semifinal volleyball scores on October 28:
Henning 3, New York Mills 0 (5th-seeded Eagles finish a great season 21-7 overall)
No. 3-seeded Breckenridge 3, No. 2-seeded Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 0

Sub-Section 3AA-North volleyball quarterfinals on October 28:
Minnewaska Area 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 1 (big upset win by the Lakers, who are 12-14)
Litchfield 3, West Central Area 1
Paynesville Area 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0
New London-Spicer 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 1

In Section 5AA play tonight, Maple Lake won 3-0 against visiting Spectrum in their play-in round match. The Irish (11-13) move on to the Section 5AA quarterfinals. Kimball Area had a No. 4 seed in Section 5AA which earned them a first-round bye. In Section 6AA, No. 10-seeded Holdingford improved to 15-12 overall with an upset 3-0 win at No. 7-seeded Foley in their play-in round match.

BLAST FROM THE PAST! Let's go back to 2018 (VIDEO)

Four years ago! Let's go back to September 25, 2018, when the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team hosted New London-Spicer in a border battle. The match went a full five games that night, and the outcome was in the balance late in game five...

Video from game five starting with the Jaguars holding an 11-9 lead:


That year the Jaguars went to the state tournament and ultimately took fourth place.

VOLLEYBALL BORDER BATTLE!

Tonight is a huge, huge night on the volleyball scene!

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team travels to New London-Spicer to face the Wildcats in a non-conference border battle! It will be a heck of a match! The Wildcats are 3-1 overall after taking runner-up honors at the Albany Early Bird Invitational on August 26. They lost in straight sets to No. 8-ranked (Class 2A) Watertown-Mayer in the finals. In pool play, NL-S defeated No. 5-ranked Sauk Centre in three sets. They are the real deal, and tonight will be a huge, huge test for our Jaguars.

Match updates will follow here.
In game one, the Wildcats have scored four straight points to take a 16 to 14 lead.

*Now it's tied 16-16.
Final: B-B-E 26, NL-S 24.

In game two, the Wildcats led 9-6 early on after the Jaguars had an initial 2 to 0 lead.
Final: B-B-E 27, NL-S 25. Wow!! The Jaguars trailed as many as six points in the second set.

In game three, the teams were in a tie at 7-7. Then the Wildcats scored nine straight to go up 16-7, and the Jaguars have burned both of their timeouts.

Final: NLS 25, B-B-E 15.

More to come in a new blog post!! We have an outcome! Video is uploading.