Kate Armon (3) drives by the MCW defender to go in for a layup in BEA’s 41-40 loss to the MCW.

Trailing 27-19 at halftime, the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers’ girls basketball team fought hard to close the gap during the second half of their game against the visiting Martin County West Mavericks on Monday, Jan. 31.

With 1:07 remaining in the contest, a 3-pointer by BEA’s Lola Lundquist brought the Bucs to within one point of the Mavericks.

BEA’s defense did the job and got the ball back. Following a timeout at the 21-second mark, the Bucs worked for a good shot. They managed to get off three shots from inside the paint during the last 10 seconds, but none of them would fall through the hoop and Martin County West went home with a 41-40 victory.

The first half saw the game tied at 12-12 before the Mavericks closed out the opening stanza on a 15-7 run.

BEA reduced the MCW lead to four points a number of times in the second half, but it wasn’t until there was 6:28 left in the game that the Bucs knocked the deficit down to two points.

A Kate Armon to Maddie Schiltz pass led to an easy bucket and made the score 32-30 in favor of the Mavericks.

The teams then exchanged buckets over the next three minutes with MCW holding on to a 36-34 lead.

A 3-pointer by the Mavericks was matched by a 3-pointer by Lundquist to make the score 39-37 with 2:28 showing on the game clock.

MCW scored two more points with 1:23 left before Lundquist hit her 3-pointer to pull the Bucs to within one point.

Lundquist and Schiltz each scored 10 points for the Bucs and Sophie Keister had six rebounds.

LCWM 70, BEA 21

Blue Earth Area went down to defeat when they traveled to Lake Crystal on Saturday, Jan. 29, to take on the Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights.

LCWM made almost 60 percent of their 2-point attempts from the field on their way to a 70-21 triumph over the Buccaneers.

The Knights built a 34-16 lead through the opening stanza and then held BEA to just five points in the final half of the game.

Turnovers were a huge problem for the Bucs. The Knights forced BEA to turn the ball over 32 times and they had 26 steals.

The Bucs made only 32 percent of their 2-pointers and only 13 percent of their shots from outside of the arc.

LCWM also held a 30-22 edge in rebounding.

Sophie Keister was the leading scorer for the Bucs with 12 points. Maddie Schiltz added six.

Keister also led the team with five rebounds. Kate Armon finished with five.

LCWM improved their record to 11-3 for the year while BEA dropped to 4-13.

New Ulm 72, BEA 28

The Bucs traveled to New Ulm on Jan. 27 for a Big South Conference clash with the Eagles.

New Ulm led 42-15 after the opening half and cruised to a 72-28 victory over BEA.

The Eagles shot over 62 percent from inside of the arc while the Bucs only made 27 percent of their 2-point attempts.

New Ulm’s pressure defense forced BEA into 26 turnovers.

The Eagles also dominated the rebounding statistics with 39 rebounds to only 21 for the Bucs.

Kate Armon put up nine points for the Maroon and Gold. Fellow guard Lola Lundquist tallied eight points.

Erika Gaydon led BEA with six rebounds.