Karli Olsen drives in for a layup against the Jackson County Central defense in the game on Wednesday night in Blue Earth. Olsen had 12 points for the Buccaneers in their 50-27 win over the Huskies.

A stifling defensive effort.

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers girls basketball team stymied the Jackson County Central Huskies throughout their game last Wednesday night in the weather-shortened Buccaneer Holiday Basketball Tournament.

BEA limited JCC to just 15 points in the first half and 12 in the second on their way to a 50-27 victory.

Originally set to be a two-day tourney, it was shortened because of snow on Tuesday to just one game for each team on Wednesday. United South Central girls and boys played Granada-Huntley-East Chain-Martin Luther-Truman in Wednesday afternoon games, and BEA and JCC girls and boys faced off in the evening.

USC won both their games, while the Bucs and Huskies split their contests.

Caitlin Rorman dodges a JCC player on the court.

Buccaneer girls coach Al Cue liked what he saw as far as the defensive effort of his team, but he would have liked to have seen more.

“Overall we played some very good defense,” he said. “Our full court effort got us some turnovers and baskets.”

But, the coach would like to see some improvement in two areas.

“We were poor in our inbound defense and we sent them (JCC) to the free-throw line way too much,” Cue said.

In fact, he pointed out, 11 of JCC’s 27 points came from free-throws, and another 10 points came off inbound plays. But, that also means the Huskies only made three baskets all night long.

The Bucs came right out of the chute and started the game by shutting down the Huskies on defense and finding the basket on offense.

BEA led JCC 32-15 at the half and were ahead 47-21 midway through the second half. And, all that was with coach Cue liberally substituting with every available player seeing some significant playing time.

In fact, eight Buccaneers hit the scoring column.

The maroon and gold were led by Taylor Grandgenett who tallied 13 points and was a perfect 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. Karli Olsen was right behind with 12 points, including both of the Bucs’ two three-pointers of the night. Caitlin Rorman had eight points, Paige Darrington five, Anne Franta four, Lindsey Jacobs and Samantha Barslow each had three and Shayna Stevermer two.

As a team the Buccaneers shot 14 of 42 from two-point range and 2 of 11 from behind the three-point arc. They were also 16 of 24 from the charity stripe.

The Bucs also had 31 rebounds and 13 steals and forced 18 Huskie turnovers and limited JCC to just one offensive rebound.

JCC was led in scoring by eighth-grader Alaina Wolff who had nine points and Hunter Wrightson who tallied seven.

Next up for the BEA girls is a game on Tuesday at St. Peter. They will then host the St. James Saints in Blue Earth on Friday.