Austin Thielfoldt receives a hug but no foul while driving to the hoop for a layup. Thielfoldt accounted for 17 of the Buc’s 89 points in their Big South Conference win over the Windom Eagles. The 89 points was the most points scored by the team this season.

Blue Earth Area made it two in a row with their 89-66 victory over the Windom Eagles on Thursday, Feb. 21. It was the highest point output of the season for the Maroon and Gold.

The visiting Bucs had five players reach double figures and made 10 3-pointers during the contest.

Neither team could get the ball through the hoop the first two minutes of the game. Carter Bell finally got the Bucs on the board with a corner 3-pointer at the 15:55 mark. Windom would tie the score at 7-7 on Kobe Lovell’s shot from behind the arc before BEA took the lead for good on Cameron Anderson’s put-back to give the Bucs a 9-7 lead. Austin Thielfoldt’s corner 3-pointer bumped the lead up to five points at 12-7.

Limiting Windom’s 3-point success was one of the goals for Buc head coach Colby Swanson.

“We knew (Kobe) Lovell was a 3-point threat but we did a very good job of defending their long-range shots tonight,” Swanson said.

Although the Bucs maintained the lead, the Eagles pulled within two points at 30-28 with just over three minutes to play in the first half. Carter Bell’s 3-pointer from the corner ignited a 12-0 Buccaneer run to give BEA a 42-28 halftime lead.

“We made better decisions on offense tonight, if we drove to the basket and if the shot wasn’t there, we kicked the ball back out and looked for a better shot,” Swanson noted.

Any thoughts of a second half letdown were quickly dismissed as the Bucs began the final 18 minutes of play with a 12-3 run. Bell’s back-door pass to Thielfoldt got the ball rolling. Grant Strukel hit one of his four 3-pointers for the night to push the Buc’s lead to 47-28. Two drives by Thielfoldt and a basket from behind the arc by Sanders more than offset three free throws by the Eagles as BEA increased their lead to 54-31 less than four minutes into the second half.

BEA would take their biggest lead of the night thanks to a nine-point outburst, which started with just under six minutes remaining in the game. A 3-pointer by Bell, a reverse layup by Anderson, two free throws by Sanders and a Thielfoldt layup courtesy of a Strukel steal put the Bucs on top 79-51.

Anderson led BEA with 21 points, Thielfoldt added 17, Bell and Strukel each had 12 and Sanders tallied 11 points. The Bucs made seven of eight free throw attempts.

The win evened the Buc’s overall record at 10-10 and gave them their third Big South Conference win against seven losses.

BEA traveled to Worthington on Friday, Feb. 22, to take on the Trojans in a Big South clash. Results of the game will be in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

The Buccaneers last regular season game is Thursday, Feb. 28. BEA will travel to Jackson to take on the Huskies in a conference match.

BEA currently has the second best record in the sub-section.

BEA 42, NRHEG 36

The Blue Earth Area boy’s basketball team didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half against the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Panthers. Actually, both teams struggled to score points in the opening stanza but going into the second half it was the Panthers who held a 19-12 lead over the host Buccaneers.

It got worse before it got better for the Bucs as NRHEG eventually opened up a 12-point lead. BEA finally got on track and ended the game defeating the Panthers 42-36.

The score was 28-16 in favor of the Panthers when the Bucs began to make their move. A free throw by Caelan Sanders, a three-pointer by Grant Strukel followed by a steal and lay up by Strukel cut the Panther’s lead to 28-22 and forced the visitors to take a time out with 12:58 showing on the clock.

It wasn’t until the clock had wound down to 4:10 that the Bucs tied the game. The Panthers had a five point lead but a traditional 3-point play by Cameron Anderson and another basket by Strukel tied the game at 34-34.

Sanders finally put the Bucs in front with a runner which put the Bucs on top 38-36. Anderson then scored on an inbounds play and the Bucs gained control of the ball with 36.6 seconds remaining in the game. Sanders scored the final two points of the game by converting two shots from the charity stripe to give BEA the six-point win.

Sanders was the only Buccaneer to reach double figures in scoring with 17 points. He also had five rebounds. Strukel added nine points to go along with four rebounds and three steals. Anderson tallied eight points while pulling down 11 rebounds and pocketing four steals.

St. James Area 67,

Blue Earth Area 55

The Bucs lost a Big South Conference match-up to the host St. James Area Saints on Friday, Feb. 15.

Grant Strukel led a balanced scoring effort by the Bucs. Strukel finished with 11 points, Carter Bell had 10, Zach Hermann and Austin Thielfoldt each tallied nine points and Cameron Anderson finished with eight points.