BEA's Abe Kokos (21) makes a strong moves to the basket during the Dec. 14 basketball contest between the two county schools. BEA won 52-47.

The battle of Faribault County boys basketball rivals took place at Wells on Tuesday, Dec. 14, when the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers took on the United South Central Rebels on the Rebels’ home floor.

BEA built their second-half lead to as many as 14 points before USC rallied to close the gap to four points in the closing seconds. However, the Bucs held on to go home with a 52-47 victory.

USC’s Colten Quade hit two 3-pointers in the opening minutes to stake the Rebels to a 6-2 lead. Luke Norman’s basket off of an inbounds play cut the USC lead to 6-4.

The Rebels still held a 10-8 lead when BEA’s Blake Ripley grabbed an offensive rebound off of his own shot and laid it in to tie the score at 10.

A 3-pointer by Ashton Lloyd gave the Bucs their first lead of the night at 13-10.

Quade was fouled shooting a shot from behind the arc and made two of his three free-throw attempts to narrow BEA’s lead to 13-12. Bucs’ guard Gabe Torres nailed a 3-pointer to put the Maroon and Gold on top by four points at 16-12.

Luke Pederson sank a 2-pointer and followed it with a 3-pointer to enable the Rebels to retake the lead at 17-16 with 2:53 left in the first half.

The Bucs closed out the opening stanza with an 8-1 run to head into halftime with a 24-18 lead.

The second half began and the Rebels used a basket by Blake Schroeder and a traditional 3-point play by Quade to cut the Bucs’ lead to one point at 24-23. Norman got free again on an inbounds play to give BEA a 26-23 lead but Quade got inside for another basket and reduced the Bucs’ lead to 26-25.

A 3-pointer by Norman and a free throw by Torres gave BEA a 30-25 lead with 14:02 remaining in the game.

The Bucs continued to increase their lead and were up by nine points with 7:35 left in the contest. Baskets by Lloyd and Abram Kokos boosted BEA’s lead to 14 points with just over six minutes left to go in the game.

USC kept fighting and had cut their deficit in half to seven points with 2:18 remaining on the game clock.

The Rebels began fouling the Bucs who were struggling to make their free throws. With 7.8 seconds left, Quade put up a twisting, off-balance shot from outside of the arc which ripped the nets for three points which made the score 51-47 in favor of the Bucs.

USC went for a steal but fouled Lloyd who made one of two free throw shots to end the game with BEA winning 52-47.

“Our goal was to limit Kokos and Lloyd offensively and I thought we did that very well,” USC head coach Adam Walker said after the game. “We gave up the early lead in the first half, and then came back from being down 14 in the second half, so the effort and heart were certainly there. We just couldn’t make the plays we needed down the stretch while BEA converted on their opportunities. Kudos to Nick Bushlack and Colten Quade for stepping up and taking on the tough task of defending those two players and really taking them out of the game early.”

BEA made 14 of their 34 shots from 2-point range (41.2 percent) and five of their 22 shots from 3-point range (22.7 percent). USC connected on nine of their 19 shots (47.4 percent) from inside of the arc and made seven of their 30 attempts (23.3) from outside of the arc.

The Bucs attempted 21 free throws and made nine while the Rebels were 8-for-13 from the charity stripe.

Offensive rebounds played a big part in BEA’s win. The Bucs had 13 offensive boards which they converted into 14 second-chance points. Overall, the Maroon and Gold outrebounded the Rebels by a 40-35 margin.

BEA had 13 steals and committed 13 turnovers. USC had seven thefts while turning the ball over 22 times.

Lloyd led all scorers with 15 points. Torres also hit double figures for the Bucs with 14 points while Luke Norman added nine.

USC had three individuals reach double figures in scoring led by Bushlack with 14 points. Quade tallied 13 and Pederson finished with 12.

Lloyd had nine rebounds, Luke Norman had eight and Jack Norman had seven.

Zale Bushlack led the Rebels with 12 boards, Taybor Conley had six and Nick Bushlack had five.

With the win, BEA’s record improves to 2-1 for the season while USC is now 0-3.

The Bucs traveled to New Ulm to take on the Eagles on Friday, Dec 17. They return home to host Fairmont on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

USC played host to Randolph on Dec. 16 and then went on the road to face Kenyon-Wanamingo on Dec. 17. They are scheduled to host Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Dec. 21.

Look for the results of these contests in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

BEA 77, MVL 61

Blue Earth Area traveled to New Ulm on Dec. 9 to take on the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers.

The Bucs took a 46-36 lead at the half on their way to a 77-61 triumph.

BEA had a good night shooting from the field. They made over 51 percent of their shots from inside of the arc and just under 43 percent of their shots from outside of the arc.

The Bucs controlled the glass by outrebounding MVL by a 45-37 margin. The Chargers held a 9-2 margin in steals and only committed 11 turnovers while BEA turned the ball over 17 times.

Ashton Lloyd poured in 26 points for the Bucs. Also reaching double figures in scoring were Gabe Torres with 17 and Abe Kokos with 16. Jack Norman tallied eight points, Austin Skaden added seven and Luke Norman finished with three.

Lloyd also led the Bucs in rebounding with 20 while Jack Norman had eight boards.

Torres led the team with 10 assists.