You will have to forgive the Blue Earth Area girls basketball team for being selfish. Last year they had to share the South Central Conference title. This year they grabbed the title for themselves with a convincing win over the visiting Waseca Blue Jays by a final score of 70-54.

“I thought we had a shot at the title this year, and except for one glitch in the conference, the girls found ways to win,” said Coach Al Cue. “They are a very driven bunch of athletes.”

The Bucs held a 17 point lead at half time. If Waseca had any thoughts of mounting a 2nd half comeback they were quickly erased as the Bucs scored the first 13 points of the half to take a commanding 30 point lead 55-25.

Katie Erdahl began the assault with a basket from outside the arc for a “3”. Meagan Grandgenett grabbed her own offensive rebound and drew a foul while putting the ball through the hoop. She converted the free throw for a conventional three point play. Next it was Kali Anderson’s turn as she swished a 15 footer from the left side. One more “3” by Erdahl and two free throws by Erin Warner completed the blitzkrieg.

Moments later the Bucs would actually enjoy their largest lead of the night as Erdahl sank two free throws to increase the margin to 31 points at 60-29 with less than six minutes elapsed in the second half.

So with 12 minutes remaining in the game the junior varsity players were able to get some experience with the varsity players cheering them on.

The game opened with Grandgenett tallying the first two points off of a nice baseline drive before Waseca’s Allison Streich made a conventional three point play to propel the Blue Jays to their only lead of the night at 3-2.

The Bucs were able to pull away as Hayley Darrington connected on two shots from beyond the arc as well as a two-pointer as the home town team built their margin to nine, taking a 16-7 lead.

Waseca would fight back and close to within four at 20-16 before Warner’s two free throws would push the lead back to six with 7:42 left in the first half. The Blue Jay’s Kelly Loonan hit one of two free throws before the Bucs put together a 9-0 run that made the score 31-17 in favor of the maroon and gold.

The teams would play fairly even the rest of the half but the Bucs would manage to put a little more distance between themselves and the Blue Jays as they took a 42-25 halftime lead.

Their prior meeting this year at Waseca, which the Bucs won 60-56, saw the Bucs commit 31 turnovers. “We kept our composure tonight,” commented Coach Cue. “Our starters committed only eight turnovers for the night.”

Blue Earth Area connected on 21 of 26 free throw attempts, an 81 percent success rate.

Grandgenett led all scorers with 19 points. Teammates Erdahl, Darrington, and Anderson scored 15, 10, and eight points respectively.

Rebounding leaders for the Bucs were Grandgenett with six, Anderson with five, and Warner with four.

Leading scorers for the Bluejays were Elizabeth Trickey and Courtney Hayford with 11 each while Allison Streich added nine.

The win gives the Bucs an 8-1 conference record and a 17-2 overall record. It was the 13th consecutive win for the Blue Earth Area girls.



B-squad

Blue Earth Area defeats Waseca 42-10

The Bucs had little trouble gaining the victory as they took a 22-2 half time lead and coasted to victory by the final score of 42-10.

Morgan Dickman was the leading scorer with 14 points while Ashley Olson and Hayley Pirsig each scored nine points for the Bucs.