Cameron Anderson completes a dunk during BEA's game against Redwood Valley.

Blue Earth Area scored the opening basket and never looked back on their way to crushing their I-90 rival, the Fairmont Cardinals, 72-37 in boys basketball on Monday, March 8. The game was played at Fairmont.

Cam Anderson scored the first points for the Bucs who cruised to a 10-1 lead in the opening minutes of the game.

BEA was on top 14-5 when they exploded for seven unanswered points.

The run began when Will Howard found Ashton Lloyd cutting down the lane for two points. Next, Braden Gudahl swished a shot from behind the arc for three more. The Maroon and Gold punctuated their 7-0 run with a steal by Austin Thielfoldt who passed to Anderson for a breakaway dunk and a 21-5 BEA lead which led to a timeout being called by Fairmont.

The Cardinals came out of the break and scored five unanswered points to cut the Bucs’ lead to 21-10. However, BEA closed out the half on an 11-4 run to head into intermission up 32-14.

The Cards scored the opening basket of the second half before Gudahl answered with a drive to the basket to give the Bucs a 34-16 lead.

Next, Anderson faked a shot from the top of the key before driving down the lane for the second of his four dunks for the evening. A 3-pointer by Gavin Storbeck put BEA ahead 39-16.

The Bucs would end up outscoring the Cards 40-23 in the second half to go home with a 35-point victory.

BEA was successful on 70 percent of their 2-point attempts, making 21 of 30 shots. They attempted 22 3-pointers and made nine for a 40.9 percent success rate.

Fairmont shot 34.5 percent from 2-point range and 15.8 percent from 3-point range.

The Cardinals held a 32 -28 advantage in rebounds. The Bucs had 10 steals compared to four for Fairmont.

Anderson led all scorers with 23 points. The senior forward made all 10 of his shots from inside the arc and was 1 of 2 on 3-point attempts.

Gudahl added 14 points, Sam Keister had 10 and Storbeck finished with nine.

Anderson also led the Bucs with six rebounds followed by Keister with five and Howard with four.

Thielfoldt doled out nine assists and Gudahl finished with six. Storbeck had four steals on the night.

BEA finishes the regular season with a record of 13-3 while Fairmont’s record was 6-8 after the loss.

The Bucs were scheduled to play in a Big South Crossover game in Luverne on Friday, March 12. They will begin subsection play on Thursday, March 18.

RWV 79, BEA 69

The Redwood Valley Cardinals upended the Blue Earth Area Bucs 79-69 in a boys basketball game played on March 5.

The contest, which took place in Blue Earth, had the Cardinals leading from start to finish.

BEA missed a layup off of the opening tip and Redwood Valley went down the floor and hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring.

Austin Thielfoldt’s pull-up jumper made the score 3-2 in favor of the Cardinals.

The visitors then went on an 8-0 scoring run to take an 11-2 lead.

Cameron Anderson sank two free throws to close the gap to 11-4 and Braden Gudahl scored a traditional 3-point play to pull the Bucs within four points at 11-7.

The teams traded layups to make the score 13-9 in favor of Redwood Valley.

The Cardinals scored again but Gavin Storbeck answered with a 3-pointer to cut the Redwood Valley lead to 15-12.

The teams exchanged free throws and then Will Howard brought the Bucs to within one point of the Cardinals on a scoop layup. Redwood Valley’s lead was now 16-15.

Unfortunately for BEA, they would be outscored 21-9 during the remainder of the opening half and the Cardinals went into the intermission with a 37-24 lead.

The Bucs outscored the Cardinals by three points in the second half but it was not enough to overtake their opponents.

It was a tough night on the boards for the Bucs. The Cardinals outrebounded the Maroon and Gold by a 53-35 margin and scored 20 second-chance points.

Both teams shot well from 2-point range. Redwood Valley made 26 of 53 attempts while BEA made 22 of 46 of their shots from inside of the arc.

While both teams shot over 47 percent on their 2-point attempts, neither team shot well from behind the arc. The Cardinals were 4 of 16 and the Bucs were 3 of 21 on shot attempts outside of the 3-point line.

BEA did have seven steals and six blocks compared to one steal and zero blocks for Redwood Valley.

Anderson led the Bucs with 19 points, Gudahl had 14 and Ashton Lloyd tallied 11. Keister and Thielfoldt each scored nine points.

Keister and Lloyd each pulled down nine rebounds while Anderson finished with five.

The loss gave the Bucs an overall record of 12-3. The Cardinals improved to 10-5.