The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team began Big South Conference play on Tuesday night, Dec. 7, when they traveled to St. Peter to take on the Saints.

St. Peter controlled the game from the start and took a 48-14 lead at halftime on their way to a 68-27 victory.

St. Peter improved to 3-0 on the year while the Bucs dropped to 1-2.

The Saints forced 31 turnovers and had 23 steals as their defensive pressure proved difficult for the Bucs to handle.

BEA had a total of 24 rebounds while St. Peter had 25.

Maddie Schiltz was the top scorer for the Bucs with 16 points. She made five of her 11 shot attempts from the field and was 6-for-7 from the free-throw line.

Kate Armon added six points for the Bucs.

Schiltz finished the game with five rebounds and Armon had four.

BEA competed in the Maple River Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 11. They will travel to Wells on Tuesday, Dec. 14, to face the United South Central Rebels.

BEA 44, RWV 42

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team picked up their first win of the young season with a hard-fought 44-42 victory over Redwood Valley in the Big South Conference Showcase which was played on Dec. 4, in New Ulm.

“This was a super-good win for the girls,” BEA head coach Chris Voss stated.

The Bucs built a seven-point lead in the first half only to see the Cardinals rally to take a 23-22 lead at the midway point of the game.

Redwood Valley extended their lead to as many as seven points in the second stanza before BEA staged a rally of their own.

The Bucs took the lead late in the game and then held on for the two-point victory.

“I was very impressed with how the girls handled the ball in the closing three minutes of the game once we took the lead,” Voss commented. “For a young team, they stayed very composed.”

Neither team had a great night shooting the ball from the field. BEA’s overall field goal percentage was 28.6 percent while Redwood Valley shot just 27.1 percent.

The Bucs actually did better shooting 3-pointers then they did shooting 2-pointers. The Maroon and Gold made 36.4 percent (4 for 11) of their shots from outside of the arc while they only shot 26.3 percent (10 for 38) from inside of the arc.

BEA players went to the free-throw line 23 times and made 11 of their shots.

Redwood Valley won the rebounding battle by a 43-32 margin but committed 17 turnovers to BEA’s 12.

Sophie Keister was the leading scorer for the Bucs with 14 points. Lola Lundquist also reached double figures with 11 points. Maddie Schiltz added 10 and Kate Armon finished with seven.

Keister also pulled down 11 rebounds to achieve a double-double in the game.

Armon had three steals in the game while Schiltz had two.

The win improved the Bucs’ season record to 1-1.

NRHEG 54, BEA 17

The Panthers of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva jumped out to an early lead and went home with a 54-17 victory after defeating Blue Earth Area on Dec. 2.

The Panthers forced the Bucs into committing 17 turnovers and collected 17 offensive rebounds.

NRHEG shot the ball well from inside of the arc where they made over 52 percent of their shots. Meanwhile, BEA made just over 31 percent of their 2-pointers and only made two of their seven three-point attempts. The Bucs made only one of their seven free-throw attempts.

Sophie Keister scored six points to lead BEA while Lola Lundquist chipped in five points.