Nate Carr works hard to get a shot attempt off with a defender in front and behind him. The Bucs had trouble shooting over the taller Giants.

Too many three-pointers by the opponents, and not enough baskets by the Buccaneers meant the Blue Earth Area boys basketball team’s season came to an abrupt halt last Tuesday night.

The three seeded Bucs traveled to Henderson to take on the second seeded LeSueur-Henderson Giants in the second round of the Section 2AA West Sub-Section Tournament.

The Bucs couldn’t overcome the Giant’s height, three-pointers and relentless defense, and lost by a score of 63-51.

In fact, the only time in the game that the Bucs were ahead was before the game even started. The Giants were called for a technical foul for dunking the ball in warm-ups and BEA’s Logan Becker sank two free-throws for a 2-0 lead before the clock started to run. There also wasn’t a jump ball to start the game as the Bucs got the ball right away as part of the technical.

The Giants took back the lead and went up 6-2 right away.

During the game the Bucs were unable to get any consistent scoring, due to a strong defense on the part of the Giants. Plus each time the Bucs got close, LSH responded with a three-pointer. They hit nine of them in the game.

BEA hit six of the three-point shots themselves, forced to go to the long-range shot when the taller Giant players shut down the Bucs inside game.

The Bucs were only down by four at the half, 29-25. But they got outscored by the Giants 17-2 in the opening minutes of the second half. That put BEA behind 46-27.

That run included a barrage of three point bombs by LSH. The Bucs finally got one of their own from Jon Trasamar. Then Nick Lee added one as well, which came when BEA trailed by 18 points at 49-31.

The Buccaneers kept fighting to try and cut the margin. With 3:27 left in the game a basket by Lee cut the LSH lead to 10 at 52-42. Soon after that the Giant’s Tyler Schmidt hit his fourth three-pointer to cut off the Buc rally.

Logan Becker hit another three-pointer at 2:27 on the clock, but it was not enough in the end.

Free-throw shooting woes also didn’t help the Bucs. They were 5 of 8 in the first half for 67 percent, but only hit 4 of 13 in the second half for a 31 percent rate. Meanwhile, the Giants hit 75 percent of theirs, going 12 of 16. The Bucs hit just 18 of their 53 shot attempts; the Giants were 21 of 42.

“The difference in the game was that we made 9 of 21 free-throws and LSH made 9 of 15 from the arc,” Coach Gary Holmseth said.

Trasamar led BEA with 13 points. Becker added 12 points and Lee had 11, Garrett Anderson nine.

The Giants had three players hit 16 points each; Schmidt, Josh Kerr and Gavin Kroehler.

The Bucs had suffered their second loss of the season to the Giants back on Jan. 8. The score of that game was 58-45.

This loss made the Bucs final season record 19-7. “We had a lot of wins this year but the thing I will remember the most is how much fun it was working with these guys each day,” Coach Holmseth said.

It was the final high school basketball game for seniors Drake Nimz, Logan Becker, Forrest Passer, and Garrett Mensing.

“It is hard to see our seniors end their career but they sure are a group of classy young men,” Holmseth said.