BEA forward Ashton Lloyd eyes the hoop as Maple River puts their arms up all around him. Lloyd had 16 points in BEA’s 75-66 win over the Eagles on Feb. 2.

It was a battle between two unbeaten boys basketball squads when the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers played host to the Maple River Eagles on Tuesday, Feb. 2.

Maple River jumped out to an early 7-2 advantage before BEA scored 15 unanswered points to take the lead for good on their way to a 75-66 non-conference victory.

The Bucs overcame their slow start and were leading 10-7 when senior center Sam Keister’s hard work on the boards resulted in an offensive rebound and a basket to put the Bucs on top 12-7 and bring Maple River head coach Chad Ostermann off the bench to call a time out.

The teams resumed play with Maple River possessing the ball. A steal and layup by BEA’s Cameron Anderson gave the Maroon and Gold a 14-7 lead and resulted in Ostermann calling another time out midway through the first half.

The Bucs would increase their lead to as many as 10 points before the Eagles rallied to close the gap to six points at half time with BEA leading 31-25.

BEA’s lead remained in single digits through much of the second half until Anderson’s 3-pointer, with just over five minutes remaining in the game, gave the Bucs a 61-50 lead. A 3-pointer by Ashton Lloyd at the 3:22 mark gave BEA a 69-54 advantage.

Maple River was forced to foul in the closing minutes and although BEA did not shoot free throws as well as they normally do, they managed to convert enough of their shots at the charity stripe to hold on for the nine-point victory.

BEA made 13 of their 23 shots from 2-point range for a shooting percentage of over 56 percent. They were almost as accurate on their shots from outside of the arc where they made 11 of 20 shots for a 55 percent success rate. The Bucs were 16 of 26 from the charity stripe.

Meanwhile the Eagles shot over 42 percent on 2-point attempts and 40 percent on 3-pointers. They were 11 of 14 from the free-throw line.

The teams were even in rebounding with each squad finishing with 30.

Three different BEA players scored in double figures led by Anderson with 22 points. Lloyd finished with 16 and Braden Gudahl made all three of his shots from behind the arc and finished with 15 points. Keister tallied nine points, Austin Thielfoldt had eight and Gavin Storbeck had five.

Keister led the Bucs with 10 rebounds followed by Thielfoldt with six.

With the win, BEA improves to 6-0 on the year while Maple River drops to 5-1.

BEA 64, Fairmont 49

Blue Earth Area defeated Big South Conference rival Fairmont 64-49 in boys basketball on Friday, Jan. 29.

The game, played in Blue Earth, saw the Bucs take the lead early and go into half time on top of the Cards by a score of 32-18.

Austin Thielfoldt led BEA’s balanced scoring attack with 16 points. Cameron Anderson and Gavin Storbeck tallied 10 points each while Ashton Lloyd had nine, Braden Gudahl chipped in eight and Will Howard added seven.

The Bucs shot over 45 percent from 2-point range but made only two of their 13 attempts outside of the arc for a 15.4 percent success rate.

Fairmont’s success shooting the ball from the field was similar. The Cards shot 42 percent inside the arc and 19 percent on their 3-pointers.

BEA made 28 trips to the free-throw line and made 18. Fairmont was successful on 5 of 17 shots from the charity stripe.

The Bucs held a 45-42 advantage in rebounding. Anderson led the team with 10 boards followed by Lloyd with nine and Sam Keister with eight.

BEA had a 10-3 advantage in steals led by Gavin Storbeck, who finished with five.

The triumph gave the Bucs a 5-0 record and dropped the Cardinals’ record to 2-2.