Both Jaguars basketball teams start the season 1-0

Austin Imdieke (3), one of three seniors on the roster of this year's boys' basketball team, closely guards WCA's Austin Redepenning (2) in the second half tonight. Redepenning hit three of the Knights four three-point shots tonight. Shown along the baseline is foreign-exchange student Henrick Hano (50), who provided some quality minutes off of the bench in the low post position.

The Jaguars boys' basketball team built on a single-digit halftime lead to beat West Central Area 65-38 in their season opener tonight. The Jaguars led by as many as 13 points in the first half, only to see the Knights whittle that down to as few as two in the final five minutes. B-B-E was up 17-12, then 17-14 and 19-14, but the Knights came back to trail 21-19 and ultimately 27-20 at halftime.

Sparked by the sight of Billy Borgerding raining down threes early in the second half, the Jaguars went up 38-22 with 14:46 left in the game and never looked back in the second half. James Kuefler finished with 16 points with eight rebounds to power the Jaguars, while Billy Borgerding added 15 points. As a team, the Jaguars out-rebounded the smaller Knights 29-19.

Up next: the defending state champion Jaguars face Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, who dismantled Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 89-23 in the earlier game of the B-B-E tournament. The Falcons led 37-5 before the Fighting Saints knew what hit them, and A-C-GC decided to name the halftime score at 55-11. I have a feeling the Falcons would have some capability of making noise in boys' basketball this year as well as wrestling. We'll see how things turn out tomorrow night.

In the wrestling tournament, the Jaguars wrestling team earned second place behind #7-ranked (Class AAA) New London-Spicer. Holdingford took third, with Willmar coming in fourth.
 

Senior Tyler Tensen earned his 75th career win tonight in the quarterfinal round of the tournament. He ended up 3-0 on the night and won by pin over a guy from New London-Spicer. Oh boy, that was fun to see!

At Benson, the Jaguars girls' basketball team won 56-47 to start their season 1-0. They play in the late game for the championship of that tournament tomorrow night at 7:30pm against Paynesville Area. The game was the second of the year for Benson, who lost their conference and season opener at Montevideo 58-43 on Tuesday night. Paynesville Area blasted MACCRAY 58-23 and had three players score in double figures. The Bulldogs have a solid unit this year, returning a nice core from last year's 14-10 squad.

Four Jaguars scored in double figures, led by junior post Megan Weller with 15. The Jaguars made only one three-pointer but were 13-of-20 from the free throw line compared to 4-of-9 free throw shooting by the Braves. Benson was 7-for-21 from beyond the arc.

I'm currently uploading the video from Adam Jaeger's championship match; I got a few uploaded at school on their super-fast high speed wireless internet, but now at home it will take awhile to get video up. Adam's video will be posted around 11:30pm.

More to follow later. So much to cover! It was a very exciting night. I've got 182 wrestling photos and 122 shots from the basketball game.

Area boys' basketball scores on November 30:
MACCRAY 48, Lac qui Parle Valley 39
Paynesville Area 68, Yellow Medicine East 32
Minnewaska Area 77, Benson 63
Eden Valley-Watkins 66, Osakis 36 
Albany 71, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 66
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 84, Mayer Lutheran 72 (that's a huge section win for the HL-W-W Lakers)
Norwood-Young America 74, Maple Lake 58
Royalton 63, Holdingford 46
Underwood 54, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 50
Rockford 67, Jordan 56
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 58, Brandon/Evansville 52 (2 OT!) 

Area girls' basketball scores on November 30:
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 54, Lac qui Parle Valley 46
Minneota 73, Ortonville 30
Annandale 72, Rockford Area 47
Kimball Area 65, Milaca 53
Litchfield 66, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 23 (I can't believe Litchfield drove out to Wheaton tonight...wow)
Henning 57, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 20
New London-Spicer 53, Eden Valley-Watkins 41
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 63, Watertown-Mayer 57

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