The Blue Earth Area Bucs boys basketball team hosted the Knights from Lake Crystal/Welcome Memorial last Monday night in a non-conference clash.

The Bucs tried to overcome a night of cold shooting and pull off a big come-from-behind win, but they fell just short and lost by two, 45-42.

The Bucs were behind almost the entire game, but they stayed within striking distance all game.

At one point in the first half they were down by eight, but they pulled within three by the time the buzzer sounded, and trailed 23-20 going into intermission.

The closest the Bucs were in the second half was when Nick Lee stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a layup which tied the game at 27.

The Knights got another bucket to go up by two, but neither team was able to score for the next three and a half minutes.

The Bucs pulled within one again at 31-30 when Corey Liebl hit a 3-pointer. It was as close as the home team would get the rest of the way out.

Their shooting may have been cold (19 of 54), but their fouling was hot – at one point in the second half the Bucs had 10 fouls to the Knights’ three. The game ended with BEA having 22 violations to LCWM’s nine.

That translated into an uneven number of trips to the charity stripe. LCWM had 20 free throw attempts, while BEA had only two. Garrett Anderson made one of his two free throws, which came late in the game.

Luckily for the Bucs, the Knights only made eight free throws, and missed a lot of tries late in the game. That kept the Buccaneers in the game and gave them a chance to win it at the end.

Trailing 45-40 with 25 seconds left, Anderson made his one free throw, followed by a basket with nine and a half seconds left, making the score 45-43.

BEA had two more opportunities to tie or win, but missed a shot and then lost the ball on an inbounds pass.

Anderson led the Bucs with 15 points. Riley Holmseth added 10 for BEA, Lee eight and Nate Carr six.

For the Knights, Alex Cornish had 15 points and Dan Chausee and Nolan Meyer each had 10.

The Bucs out rebounded the Knights 32-18. Anderson had 12 of those.

The loss put the Bucs season record at 8-7 overall, 3-3 in the conference.

This week the Bucs travel to USC on Tuesday, and St. Peter on Thursday.