Girls down St. Clair

Kari Darrington tries to tip the ball away from a St. Clair player during action in last Monday’s game. To see more photographs of this event, log on to http://cu.faribaultcountyregister.com
BEA 45, St. Clair 36
The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team jumped out to a 7-0 lead on their way to a 45-36 win over St. Clair on Monday night.
The win propelled the Bucs into the consolation championship game on Tuesday against USC.
The Bucs had to rebound from a loss to Mankato East on Saturday in their opening play in the St. Clair Tournament.
The Bucs led the host team for the entire game, but sloppy play at times kept the Cyclones in the game.
After the opening run, the Bucs increased the lead to 14-6. A full-court press gave the Cyclones trouble.
A pair of 3-pointers by Morgan Dickman and Kari Darrington, plus a basket by Olivia Skaare, put the Bucs up 25-16 at the half.
Dickman, who had been held scoreless in Saturday’s matchup against Mankato East, was the scoring leader on Monday with 18 points.
A rebound and put-back by Skaare pushed the lead to 12 in the second half, 39-27.
But that lead quickly disappeared as the Cyclones scored seven unanswered points, cutting the lead to five at 39-34.
St. Clair got one more basket with just over three minutes to play, to make the score 41-36. However, the Bucs shut them out the rest of the game – while scoring twice off of steals.
“Its a win,” Coach Al Cue said after the game. “Although it wasn’t always pretty.”
Besides Dickman’s 18, Kate Hassing and Hayley Pirsig both added six points, and Skaare had five.
The Bucs were out-rebounded by the tall Cyclones 28 to 25. Hassing grabbed seven boards for the Bucs.
BEA was 4 of 7 for 3-pointers and 16 of 40 from 2-point range, while St. Clair was 2 of 4 and 14 of 34.
The Bucs were only 1 of 7 for free-throws, while the Cyclones were just 2 of 9.
Mankato East 52, BEA 44
The Bucs opened play in the St.Clair basketball tournament by facing Mankato East and losing 52-44 last Saturday.
Blue Earth Area had won the tournament the last two years, but were not going to be able to ‘three-peat.’
The Cougars led 29-24 at the half, and outscored the Bucs 23-20 in the second half.
The Bucs were led by Hayley Pirsig, who scored 12 points. Kate Hassing added 10 points, as well as five rebounds.
Ashley Olson scored nine points for the Bucs, and had five steals. The Bucs had 18 steals to the Cougars 10. They also only had 13 turnovers, to Mankato East’s 22.
Olivia Skaare led on the boards, grabbing seven of the Bucs 28 rebounds. The Cougars had 34 rebounds.
The difference in the game came at the free-throw line. BEA was just 4 of 12, while Mankato East nailed 17 of their 24 attempts.
BEA was 2 of 7 from 3-point range, 17 of 50 from 2-point area. Mankato East was 3 of 7 and 13 of 31.