Caitlin Rorman shoots over the LCWM defender. Rorman led all players with 33 points, but BEA fell short in their rally, suffering their first loss of the basketball season.

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team traveled to New Ulm on Thursday, Dec. 6, looking for their second conference win of the season. It was not to be however with the Eagles outscoring the Buccaneers 72-38 to win the game.

New Ulm took control of the game in the first half, securing a 36-11 halftime lead.

BEA had better offensive production in the second half, scoring 27 points. However, the Eagles still outpaced the Bucs, putting another 36 points through the hoop.

Caitlin Rorman finished the game with 24 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Hannah Johnson added nine points, eight rebounds and three assists.

The loss drops the Bucs’ record to 1-2 overall, 1-1 in the Big South Conference.

Hannah Johnson soars over the LCWM player as she drives to the basket. Johnson finished with 14 points.

LCWM 66, BEA 64

It was a furious rally that came up a little short.

The Blue Earth Area girls varsity basketball team came within two points of erasing an 11 point second half deficit before falling to the Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights by a final score of 66-64.

The game, played Dec. 3, in Blue Earth, saw the Bucs fall behind 56-45 with 5:26 left in the game. BEA eventually cut the Knights’ lead to just seven points with 1:30 remaining.

That is when things became real interesting. Caitlin Rorman was fouled after pulling down an offensive rebound. She made both free throws to cut the Knights’ lead to five points.

Each team made a pair of free throws to keep the margin at five points with the Knights on top 63-58. LCWM went to the line again and converted their first free throw to take a six point lead. A miss on the second free throw attempt resulted in Rorman grabbing the rebound and driving the length of the floor for the layup.

Trailing by four points, the Bucs’ Ta Armstrong made a nice defensive play to steal the inbounds pass. Her short range jumper fell through the net to get the deficit down to two points and force a LCWM timeout.

The Knights strategy for breaking the Bucs’ press worked resulting in an easy basket and a 66-62 lead.

Rorman, who led all scorers with 33 points, was able to add one more basket in the last seconds to make the final score 66-64 in favor of the Knights.

“I was proud of the way our girls played,” assistant coach Travis Armstrong said. “It was physical, but we reacted well to that and didn’t back down.”

Armstrong is serving as the interim head coach while Al Cue is in Florida. Cue is training to become a standardized test giver for area high schools.

The teams had played a very even first half. Hannah Johnson’s pull up jumper broke a 20-20 tie to give the Bucs a 22-20 lead with less than five minutes to go in the opening half.

The Knights responded with six unanswered points to go on top 26-22. The first half ended with the Knights on top 30-26.

BEA made 11 of 15 shots from the charity stripe. Rorman converted seven of her eight free throw attempts.

Johnson was the Bucs’ second leading scorer with 14 points while Armstrong tallied seven points.

Johnson pulled down seven rebounds followed by Alyssa Ripley who had six.

Rorman and Johnson led the team in steals with four and three respectively. BEA 52, Fairmont 41

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball squad opened their season with a 52-41 conference road victory over their I-90 rival, the Fairmont Cardinals.

It did not look good at the start of the game. Fairmont jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Buccaneers regrouped.

Caitlin Rorman led the turnaround, scoring 13 of the Bucs’ next 25 points while the Buccaneer defense held the Cardinals scoreless, allowing the Bucs to take a 25-7 lead.

BEA went into the locker room at halftime with a 28-11 lead. Fairmont would outscore the Bucs 30-24 in the second half but fell short as BEA claimed the win.

Rorman scored a game-high 27 points to lead all scorers. Hannah?Johnson chipped in seven points for the Bucs.

Rorman and Johnson were also the leading rebounders for BEA, with nine and six boards respectively.