Caelan Sanders drives around his JCC opponent as he drives to the basket. Sanders led the Buccaneers in scoring against the Huskies with 16 points. JCC defeated BEA to win the BEA Holiday Classic Tournament.

The Blue Earth Area boys basketball team fell to the Jackson County Central Huskies in the championship game of the Blue Earth Area Holiday Classic. JCC won by a final score of 75-47.

BEA defeated the United South Central Rebels in the first round, 66-64, to earn their spot in the championship game. JCC was victorious against the Truman/Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain Jaguars, 91-64, to move into the championship round.

JCC opened the second half of their game against the Bucs with a 14-0 run to turn a 30-25 halftime advantage into a 44-25 lead.

Cameron Anderson’s turnaround jumper finally broke the Huskies run, but the Buccaneers were never able to get closer than 15 points to the Huskies. JCC outscored the Bucs 45-22 in the second half.

The first half had been a different story. Six minutes into the game found the Bucs and the Huskies tied at 7-7. Caelan Sander’s drive through the lane and Carter Bell’s shot from behind the arc sandwiched around a JCC basket gave the Bucs the lead at 12-9.

Two free throws by the Huskies closed the gap to one point but another drive by Sanders and a nifty move by Parker Kienitz resulted in two more baskets and the Bucs largest lead of the game at 16-11.

JCC battled back to tie the game at 17 all. The teams each took turns being in the lead over the next few minutes. The Huskies eventually took the lead for good at 26-25 before closing out the first half with four unanswered points for a 30-25 halftime lead.

Three BEA players scored in double figures with Sanders leading the way with 16 points. Austin Thielfoldt and Anderson had 11 and 10 points, respectively. The Bucs made seven of their 12 free throw attempts.

Thielfoldt also led the team with five rebounds and three assists.

BEA 66, USC 64

Two cross county rivals met in the first round of the Blue Earth Area Holiday Classic.

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers faced the United South Central Rebels in a battle of two evenly matched teams.

BEA’s largest lead of the game was five points in the first half. The largest lead USC had was six points and occurred in the second half.

The Bucs led at the end of the opening stanza 36-35 but USC opened the second half outscoring BEA 7-2 to take a 42-38 lead.

USC increased their lead to 47-41 on the strength of a 3-pointer by Colby Klocek and a bucket off an offensive rebound by Sam Zebro.

A free throw by Cameron Anderson, a drive and layup by Caelan Sanders and an Austin Thielfoldt putback of his own missed shot closed the gap to one point at 47-46.

USC had taken a five point lead at 51-46 when it started raining 3-pointers.

Carter Bell started things with back-to-back long range bombs to give BEA a 52-51 lead. Klocek answered with his own 3-pointer only to have Anderson hit one for the Bucs, putting the Maroon and Gold in front 55-54.

Klocek then knocked down two more from beyond the arc to stake USC to a 60-55 lead. Thielfoldt decided to get in on the act and added another 3-pointer for the Bucs to cut the USC lead to two points at 60-58.

Buccaneer freshman Zach Hermann knocked down a jumper to tie the game at 60-60. Klocek made one free throw and then added a conventional basket putting USC up by three at 63-60.

Bell scored to pull the Bucs within one point at the 4:15 mark. Less than a minute later Hermann’s basket gave BEA a 64-63 advantage.

Klocek made one of two free throws to tie the game at 64 with three minutes left in the game.

The winning shot came from Carter Bell when the ball was deflected to him just inside the arc. Bell drained the jumper with 17 seconds left and the Bucs held on for the 66-64 victory.

Bell tallied 21 points to lead a trio of Buc players reaching double figures in scoring. Anderson added 14 and Thielfoldt finished with 13. Hermann ended the game with eight points and Caelan Sanders finished with seven.

Klocek and AJ Kloos scored 20 points each for the Rebels, with Nolan Magnuson chipping in 18.

T/ML/GHEC 61, USC 47

The Truman / Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain Jaguars avenged an early season 15-point loss to the United South Central Rebels by defeating them in the third place game of the Blue Earth Holiday Classic. The final score had the Jaguars winning 61-47.

T/ML/GHEC held a slim 27-23 lead at halftime but outscored the Rebels by 10 points in the second half.

Freshman forward Adam Heckman led the Jaguars in scoring with 22 points. Carter Spear added 13 and Isaac Johnson finished with 11.

USC also had three players reach double figures in scoring with Sam Zebro leading the way with 12 points. AJ Kloos and Colby Klozek both had 10 points for the Rebels.