Bucs fall to Mavs, down Giants
Martin County West handed the Blue Earth Area boys basketball team their first loss of the season. The visiting Mavericks overcame a 10-point second half deficit to win 51-47.
You don’t have to look too far into the statistics to see what made the difference. MCW went to the free throw line 28 times and made 23 for an 82 percent success rate. Meanwhile, the Bucs could only manage 42 percent efficiency as they made 5-of-12 free throws.
After committing only two fouls in the first half of play, the Bucs were whistled for 17 fouls in the second half. Sixteen of the Mavericks last eighteen points came from free throws.
“Give them credit,” says Bucs coach Gary Holmseth. “They were able to get to the line and made the most of it.”
It was a low-scoring first half but the Bucs held the edge at 20-15 going into the break.
Riley Holmseth and Nate Carr did most of the damage for the maroon and gold as they combined to score 16 of the teams’ first half points – including two 3-pointers by Holmseth.
The Bucs doubled their lead early in the second half as they outscored the Mavericks 6-1 in the opening minutes to take a 26-16 advantage.
Geoff Krumwiede scored his only field goal of the night from behind the arc to cut the lead to seven. MCW got the ball back following a 10-second violation against the Bucs and Maverick center Mitchell Olson drew a foul and converted two free throw attempts to cut the lead to five.
A nice feed by Carr to Garrett Anderson, who had sealed off his defender, resulted in an easy bucket and put the Buc’s lead back to seven.
The Mavericks kept coming back but the host team kept holding them off – until with just under four minutes to play the visitors finally pulled into a tie at 36 points apiece.
At the 3:07 mark, Krumwiede put MCW ahead for good as he sank two free throws for a 38-36 edge. Krumwiede was 10-for-10 at the charity stripe and led the Mavericks in scoring with 13 points.
The Bucs kept up the pressure and pulled to within two points at 49-47 with .7 seconds left. They fouled trying to steal the inbounds pass, and Krumwiede sank two more free throws to end the game.
“I thought our defense was solid,” noted coach Holmseth, “But we maybe didn’t rebound quite as well.”
The Bucs did hold the edge on the boards, out-rebounding the Mavericks 28-25 with 10 of those pulled down off the offensive board.
Nate Carr led all scorers with 16 points. Holmseth and Anderson added 13 and nine respectively for the Bucs.
BEA 50, LSH 41
Blue Earth Area fought back from a 7-point second half deficit to gain a 50-41 victory over the visiting Le Sueur-Henderson Giants in boys basketball action on Saturday, Dec. 13.
Trailing 37-30, the Bucs outscored LSH 20-4 over the game’s final eight minutes to come away with their second victory in as many games.
The Giants scored the game’s first four points and held a 7-3 lead. Buc sophomore guard Riley Holmseth hit a 3-pointer off an inbounds play to tie the game at seven.
Garrett Anderson would be involved in the Bucs’ next eleven points. The string started as the junior center grabbed his own rebound and put it in for two.
With the defense collapsing on him on the next possession, he kicked the ball out to Dalton Hurn at the top of the key who connected on a three. Anderson would then score the next six Buc points, the last bucket coming on a tip in off of a missed Holmseth shot.
Le Sueur-Henderson kept it close as 6-foot-3 sophomore forward Joe Hank kept getting open for close buckets.
With 1.8 seconds left in the first half, the Bucs held a 22-20 lead and set up for an inbounds play under their own basket. Nick Lee found Holmseth, who hit a buzzer-beating three, and the Bucs took a 25-20 lead into the locker room at half time.
Giants guard Tyler Schmidt, coming off a 35-point performance in his previous game, drilled a three to cap off an 11-0 run midway through the second half – putting the Giants up 37-30.
Back-to-back threes by the Bucs’ Lee and Holmseth closed the gap to one. Another inside basket by the Giants’ Hank prompted a time out by the Bucs at the 6:25 mark – with the Giants holding a 39-36 advantage.
Charlie Garlick hit two free throws to close within one – followed by two more from the charity stripe by Nate Carr which gave the Bucs the lead for good.
Carr, returning to action following an ankle injury, was fouled again the next time down the floor. He couldn’t convert on the front end of a one-and-one, but Lee grabbed the rebound and put it in to push the Bucs lead to three at 42-39.
The Giants could manage only one more basket by Hank as the Bucs extended their margin for a nine point victory.
“The overall biggest key to winning this game was holding Tyler Schmidt, who is the best player in the section, to 12 points,” commented Coach Gary Holmseth. “It was a great team effort on defense.”
Leading scorer for the game was the Giants’ Hank, who finished with 17. Riley Holmseth led the Bucs balanced scoring attack, hitting four from behind the arc for 12 points, followed by Anderson with 10, Lee with nine and Carr with eight.
The boards were dominated by the Bucs as they out rebounded the Giants 30-16 – including 14 offensive boards. The home team was successful on 6 of 8 free-throw attempts while the Giants were 1 of 3 from the line.