One-point lead at halftime

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team holds a 24-23 lead at halftime tonight in a Central Minnesota Conference game at Paynesville. Update: with 90 seconds left in the game, the Bulldogs have a 57-47 lead.

Final score: Paynesville Area 60, B-B-E 50. The Jaguars turned in a giant effort, but they were one-and-done too many times in the latter part of the second half to maintain pace with the home team, who entered the contest averaging 70 points per game. The Bulldogs made numerous well-guarded shots both in the paint and beyond the arc.

The Bulldogs (9-8, 7-0) remain in a tie for first place with Holdingford, while the Jaguars slip below .500 to 8-9 overall (4-4 in the CMC for 5th place). Holdingford, winners of 8 in a row, is currently 13-3 overall and 7-0 in the CMC.

Area boys' basketball scores on February 2:
Benson 74, Swanville 55
Breckenridge 64, West Central Area 55
Melrose Area 61, Minnewaska Area 50
Upsala 81, Kimball Area 60
Osakis 81, Royalton 64
Underwood 82, Ashby 59

Girls' hockey edges Otters, earn No. 3 playoff seed

At Richmond this past Thursday night, the River Lakes Stars girls' hockey team defeated Fergus Falls 5-4 to improve to 13-10-1 overall as the regular season concludes. The win also avenges their tough 4-3 loss at Fergus Falls on December 16.

River Lakes has won 6 of their last 8 contests, and they finish the Central Lakes Conference schedule in fourth place with a 6-5 record.

In the seven-team Section 2A, the Stars hover in the middle of the pack. Mankato East (22-2-1) is the probable No. 1 seed. Whoever nabs the top seed will earn a quarterfinal-round bye.

Update: the Stars have earned the No. 3 seed in Section 2A. They host a playoff game on Thursday, February 3 at 7 p.m. in Richmond. More to follow.

Coming on Monday...
The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team hopes to take a bite out of the Bulldogs on Monday night when they travel to Paynesville Area for a Central Minnesota Conference game. The varsity game should begin at about 7 p.m.

As it stands, we have a rare Tuesday this week where we have no varsity activities.

Girls' basketball takes a tough two-point loss

In a game with championship-level implications, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team struggled for an entire game at Kimball Area tonight. At halftime, the Jaguars trailed 26-17.

Strong three-point shooting in the second half nearly overcame other shortcomings in the game, and the Jaguars made 6 of 15 three-point attempts after halftime. The Jaguars trailed 53-48 with 1:33 to go but could not complete the comeback across the last minute.

Ultimately, the Jaguars lost the game on free throws with 3-of-13 shooting on the line.

Final score: Kimball Area 53, B-B-E 51. The Jaguars have a break in competition until Friday, February 6, when they host Royalton. As it stands now, we have a three-way tie for first place in the CMC with B-B-E, Royalton and Kimball Area. Overall, B-B-E is 14-5 with 7 games remaining before playoffs begin.

At Holdingford tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team lost 67-48 while seeing their three-game winning streak come to an end. The Huskers led 32-29 at halftime.

Next for the boys' basketball team: the Jaguars travel to Paynesville Area for a CMC border battle next Monday, February 2. Those two teams square off in a rematch on Thursday, February 6 in Belgrade.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on January 30:
Royalton 72, Paynesville Area 34

Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on January 30:
Paynesville Area 77, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 53
Eden Valley-Watkins 87, Maple Lake 52
Royalton 79, Kimball Area 63

Area girls' basketball scores on January 30:
BOLD 83, Montevideo 20
East Central 41, Hinckley-Finlayson 37
Sauk Centre 59, Minnewaska Area 46
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 66, Melrose Area 42
West Central Area 56, Parkers Prairie 45
Braham 72, Mille Lacs 25
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 81, Dawson-Boyd 56
New London-Spicer 58, Annandale 20
Benson 69, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 35
Willmar 78, Rocori 31
Osakis 68, Upsala 38
Swanville 56, Browerville 20
Minneota 63, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 58

Girls' basketball is struggling in Kimball

Tough news at halftime out of Kimball. The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is in a funk and struggling mightily against the second-place Cubs. At the break, the Jaguars trail 26-17. The second half is starting at about 7:07 p.m. I was really counting on being able to watch part of the game, but unfortunately, the Kimball school website has a massive screw up. There's no link or anything that shows where the NFHS Network live stream is posted. I have scoured the Internet and the NFHS website...nothing! Dang it!! I have an active NFHS account, but it is not paying off for me tonight.

Meanwhile! I am at the Padua Pub as I am blogging this. The Belgrade Cooperative Association is holding their 97th annual meeting and banquet. This is a big deal!

Wrestlers host Parents Night and quadrangular (VIDEOS)

The B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team fell in three duals on Thursday night on the home mats. They hold a 2-16 record heading into the final matches of the regular season. In their final dual, the Jaguars held a 33-18 lead against Royalton/Upsala. Giving up four forfeits at the end gave Royalton/Upsala a 42-33 win.

Here's video recorded during the A-C-GC match:


More to come later in the day on Friday with more to this blog post. I'll be in Brooklyn Park at the Minnesota Newspaper Association state convention.

In basketball news...
The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team has a huge game coming tonight, Friday, when they travel to Kimball Area for a big Central Minnesota Conference game. The Cubs are one game out of first place behind the 9-0 Jaguars in the league standings. Also tied for second is Royalton, who travels to B-B-E high school next Friday, February 6.

Here's a video from early in the 2nd half against A-C-GC on Tuesday night:


I'm gathering results from the Camden Conference dance championships that were held in Granite Falls last night.

Once I fire up my editor's blog, I'll have notes to share from the newspaper convention later this morning.

And finally...here's my editor's blog post with notes provided from Brooklyn Park today: MNAconvention2026.

Basketball teams sweep varsity games

At Maple Lake in a Central Minnesota Conference game, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team held on to leads of single digits throughout the second half. Final: B-B-E 75, Maple Lake 68. The Jaguars (8-7) move above .500 for the first time since December. In the Section 6A standings, the Jaguars have climbed to No. 11 out of 22 teams.

On the home court in another CMC game tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team used a late burst of offense before halftime to carve out a 59-41 win over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. They are now 14-4 overall and 9-0 in the CMC. The last time the Jaguars won 9 straight CMC games was in the COVID season of 2020-2021.

Kimball Area, who sits in second place with Royalton, had a Section 6AA game tonight against visiting Milaca (11-4). B-B-E and Kimball Area collide this Friday night in Kimball for a huge CMC game.


Mid-week updates...
Coming on Thursday this week: the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team hosts a quadrangular along with Parents Night. They lost 3 duals tonight in Benson to fall to 2-13 overall.

Also, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team travels to Yellow Medicine East high school today for the Camden Conference dance championships. This is a makeup event that was originally scheduled for last Friday night. The competition begins at YME high school at 6:30 p.m.

Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on January 27:
Holdingford 101, Kimball Area 81
Paynesville Area 85, Eden Valley-Watkins 82
Royalton 71, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 61

Area boys' basketball scores on January 27:
New London-Spicer 84, Watertown-Mayer 76
Annandale 73, Sauk Centre 64
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 78, Minnewaska Area 51
Brandon-Evansville 77, Ashby 58
Hancock 68, Border West 51
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 70, Underwood 52
Melrose 66, Osakis 52
Fergus Falls 63, Willmar 62
Rothsay 67, Parkers Prairie 63
K-M-S 81, Yellow Medicine East 29
Renville County West 63, BOLD 62
Browerville 47, Wadena-Deer Creek 42

Area girls' basketball scores on January 27:
BOLD 76, Minnewaska Area 65
New London-Spicer 80, Watertown-Mayer 39
St. Cloud Cathedral 68, St. Cloud Crush 31
Royalton 41, Melrose Area 30
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 75, Montevideo 21
Milaca 69, Kimball Area 35
Hancock 61, Border West 43
Marshall 76, Willmar 45
Upsala 77, LP-GE 43
Swanville 68, Osakis 62
Rothsay 62, Ashby 29
Minneota 53, Canby 49
MACCRAY 79, Benson 32

Halftime on the home court (VIDEO)

At halftime, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team holds a commanding 43-24 lead against Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. The Jaguars are playing on back-to-back nights in the Central Minnesota Conference. The Falcons displayed terrific ball pressure across most of the first half, but the Jaguars exploded after falling behind 18-14 with 7:10 to go. With 6:54 left, Teagan Dingmann canned a three-pointer, and the Jaguars rolled from that point while scoring 15 points in the final 5 minutes before halftime.

Here's action from later in the 2nd half tonight:


With 10 minutes to go, Kacey Fischer drained a three-pointer that tied the game at 14-14.

No word yet out of Maple Lake, where the boys' basketball team is also playing in a CMC game. UPDATE: with 14:44 left in the game, the Jaguars are ahead of Maple Lake 44-42.

Girls' basketball maintains first place

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team defeated Maple Lake 72-50 tonight in a Central Minnesota Conference game. Playing the makeup game at Maple Lake, the Jaguars led 33-20 at halftime. In the CMC, their record improves to 8-0. They've now earned CMC sweeps against EV-W and Maple Lake.

The Irish hold a record of 1-15 overall and 0-8 in the CMC.

B-B-E is 13-4 overall and will host Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (6-10, 2-6) tomorrow in another CMC game.

At Long Prairie-Grey Eagle, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team defeated the host Thunder 55-41. The Jaguars (7-7 overall) travel to Maple Lake on Tuesday for a CMC game.

Focus on church worship...
Belgrade Tribune newspaper archives. It is very interesting! In 1964, the average Sunday worship attendance was 207. This grew by a big margin in 1965 to average attendance of 254. Imagine how much better off society was back then when church attendance was considerably higher than it is today. Think about that.

Catching up with some college news

This winter, as far as I am aware, three B-B-E graduates are playing collegiate basketball. They include Class of 2023 graduates Kaden Pieper (University of Minnesota-Morris), Tiyana Schwinghammer (Valley City State University) plus Class of 2024 graduate Brooklyn Fischer (St. Cloud Technical and Community College).

In Saturday's game against Mayville State, Schwinghammer scored 18 points in 30 minutes of play to lead the scoring for the VCSU Vikings, who beat the Comets 100-57. This snapped a 10-game losing streak. Schwinghammer, a junior, also had 3 rebounds and 3 assist with 4 made three-point shots. This game was played at Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Concordia College in Moorhead, since Valley City State University's gymnasium recently received water damage.

In another game played on Saturday, the University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars defeated the University of Wisconsin-Superior Yellowjackets 80-78 in a Upper Midwest Athletic Conference game in Morris. Pieper scored 18 points, and the UMM Cougars improved to 4-1 in the UMAC. Pieper scored his 18 points in 32 minutes of play, and he also added 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

In a Minnesota College Athletic Conference game on Saturday against Anoka-Ramsey, the St. Cloud Technical and Community College Cyclones fell 64-53. Fischer led the Cyclones with 15 points in 36 minutes of play plus 6 rebounds. Through 17 games, Fischer is averaging 15.6 points per game on 36 percent field goal shooting.

Tonight's activities are nixed, and newspapers continue to go missing for days on end!

Due to the oncoming bitter cold temperatures, tonight's B-B-E school activities have been canceled. This announcement was made shortly after 11 a.m. today. Also, B-B-E schools is closed for Friday, January 23. The Friday evening activities have all been postponed.

In other news...
The Post Office continues to lose my newspapers. For 6 straight days this past week, the Post Office failed to deliver my Willmar/Benson/Spicer/New London newspapers. Multiple subscribers from those communities all received the January 15 issue in today's mail - today! Thursday, January 22. In November, the Post Office did the same thing the week before B-B-E's fall two-act play took place. I am STILL very SORE about that! 

Let's stop for a moment and see how big the failures are. Each Wednesday night, without question, roughly 800 of my newspapers are delivered to the St. Cloud Post Office headquarters. They're separated in totes and bundles in highly organized fashion. It's been this way for decades. The next day, Thursday, subscribers all across central Minnesota are supposed to get my newspaper. Lately, that has not been the case (especially since 2021)...where do they put the newspapers? The January 15 newspapers designated for routes in Willmar, New London, Benson...where were they for the past 6 days? What do they do with them in St. Cloud? How bad can that organization be? It's insane.

Last night, Wednesday, the January 22 issues were brought to St. Cloud. Now the waiting game takes place to see where the heck the U.S. Post Office puts them before getting them to subscribers.

I'm not sure if we can keep the business going when our product is not delivered on time to our subscribers. It is killing us when our advertisers can't get their marketing messaging to the public in a timely fashion. If you add it all up, what this does is make the newspaper an unsustainable business venture.

There's saving grace here, at least a little - the Post Office has been breathing down my neck to spend $2,000+ on fancy software and a new system for the labels. I've been telling them: there's no way I'll invest that money if they keep losing my papers like they have been doing. So if nothing else, I've got a lot of bargaining power to push back on them!! They have to straighten out their organization.