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Bucs win their tourney

By Staff | Jan 3, 2010

BEA's Nate Carr

It was a game of momentum swings as the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers met the Jackson County Central Huskies in the championship game of the BEA Holiday Basketball Tourney last Tuesday night in Blue Earth.

The final swing went the Bucs way, as they outscored the Huskies 17-5 over the last 6:30 minutes of the game to turn a one point deficit into an 11 point win. They defeated the Huskies by the final score of 74-63.

“The tougher things got out on the court, the tougher our team got,” notes Bucs mentor Gary Holmseth. “Nate Carr and Nick Lee really ignited us, they got us going.”

Indeed, Lee finished the game with a double double including a career high 31 points along with 13 rebounds. As for Carr, the senior guard tallied 17 points, eight rebounds and five steals in an all around great effort.

It proved to be a very physical game and both teams had players in foul trouble. Three Huskie players fouled out of the game.

USC's Riley Swearingen

Blue Earth Area took an early 13-2 lead as Carr scored the first points of the game on a steal and lay up. Lee then scored six straight points as the Bucs looked sharp in the early going.

The Huskies would inch closer and cut the lead to five points at the 9:10 mark as they trailed 20-15. The Bucs responded and Brady Anderson’s trey completed a 12-5 run, putting the Bucs up by 12 at 32-30 with 5:30 left in the opening half. The Bucs looked to be pulling away.

A shift in momentum occurred. The Huskies’ shots started falling, while the Bucs were finding it hard to score. The Huskies’ Matt Kocak connected from behind the arc with nine seconds left in the first half, completing a 15-3 run and sending the teams to their locker rooms at half time knotted up at 35 points each.

JCC started the second half just as they ended the first half as Ty Schwarting, who led the Huskies with 23 points, scored the first seven points of the half. That gave the visitors a 42-35 lead over the Bucs.

The Bucs were still down by five when a trey by Riley Holmseth and a Taylor Owen basket from close range pulled the Bucs into a 45-all tie with just under 14 minutes to go.

The next seven plus minutes saw both teams attacking the basket and the foul trouble beginning to take its toll. BEA’s Brady Anderson picked up his fourth foul at the 9:12 mark and was forced to sit for awhile. Meanwhile Joel Hartzler and Alex Hohenstein, a pair of 6-foot-3 players for JCC, committed their fifth fouls and were done for the evening.

It was a basket by Lee that finally gave the Bucs the lead for good at 59-58. Carr followed that with a baseline drive to put the Bucs up by three. Next, Carr and Lee executed the fast break to perfection as Carr hit a streaking Lee for the layup. Two free throws by Carr and one by Garrett Anderson gave the Bucs a double digit lead at 68-58 with 3:23 showing on the clock.

Five of the Bucs last seven points came from the free throw line, as the Bucs iced the win to claim the tourney championship.

Garrett Anderson joined Lee and Carr in reaching double figures, scoring 14 points while pulling down eight rebounds. As a team the Bucs controlled the boards by a 40-26 margin. BEA went to the free throw line 33 times and made 17.

Consolation Game

GHEC 64, USC 42

The Mustangs of Granada-Huntley-East Chain took advantage of numerous USC turnovers on their way to a 64-42 victory in the game for third place.

Leading the way for the Mustangs was their pair of seniors – Mason Teachout scoring 24 points and Jordan Stennes adding 12.

GHEC established their dominance on this night early taking a 9-0 lead before the Rebels were finally able to get on the board with just under six minutes run off the clock.

Teachout’s left hander off the glass from a Stennes feed sent the Mustangs into the locker room with a 26-15 lead at half time.

Things didn’t get any better for the Rebels in the second half. The Mustangs tallied the first seven points of the closing stanza as they increased their lead to 18 points.

The closest the Rebels would come would be with 5:18 left in the game as two treys and a basket off of an offensive rebound by guard Riley Swearingen closed the gap to 12 points with the Mustangs on top 52-40

That would be as close as the Rebels would get as the Mustangs scored the next eight points to put the lead back to 20 points and cement their victory.