BEA’s Caelan Sanders tries to power his way to the basket against USC.

The Blue Earth Area boys basketball team (6-14) dropped their fifth straight game last Tuesday. They were beaten by another team nicknamed the Bucs.

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers cruised to a 64-36 victory over the maroon and gold. Playing as the road team, Blue Earth Area could not stop the three-point barrage from their opponent. For the game, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown drained 11 of their 22 shots from downtown. By comparison, BEA shot just 3-of-13 from beyond the arc.

Crisp ball movement led to 17 assists on the evening for WEM. Meanwhile, Blue Earth Area registered three assists in the contest. A total of 18 BEA turnovers led to 13 second chance points for Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

Senior Jacob Vaske led Blue Earth Area in scoring with nine points. Teammates Caelan Sanders, Cameron Anderson, and Brayden Barnett each added seven.

BEA was back in action on Saturday, Feb. 17 as they squared off against Worthington (12-9) at home. Results from this game will be available in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

USC 62, BEA 40

In their Feb. 12 game against the Rebels from United South Central, the Buccaneers got off to a very slow start. The maroon and gold trailed 10-0 to USC in the early stages of the ballgame.

By halftime, Blue Earth Area had trimmed the deficit to six. BEA’s Austin Thielfoldt stole the ball in USC’s frontcourt, then sprinted towards the Buccaneers basket for a layup in the closing seconds of the period. The bucket made the score 25-19 in favor of USC at the break.

Unfortunately for the Blue Earth Area home crowd, the Bucs were unable to continue their momentum in the second half. The Rebels went on a 7-0 run to start the period, and with 12:55 remaining in the game, USC’s lead had swelled to 40-25.

A Bobby Lindsey offensive rebound and putback with 10:47 remaining trimmed the deficit to 43-31, but that would be as close as the Bucs would get for the rest of the contest.

Despite the loss, Thielfoldt stuffed the stat sheet for the Bucs, accounting for 15 points, seven rebounds and six steals. Meanwhile, Cameron Anderson and Jacob Vaske added eight points for BEA.