Buccaneer Jack Norman, above, flies high against the Huskies.

When the Jackson County Central Huskies and the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers met in the finals of the BEA Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30, the Huskies were able to rally and defeat the Bucs by two points in the closing seconds of the game.

The two teams renewed their rivalry again on Saturday, Feb. 19, in Blue Earth and this time BEA prevailed, winning 63-51.

“Our defense was much better in this game,” BEA head coach Colby Swanson said. “It may have been our best defensive game of the year.”

Ashton Lloyd’s turn-around jumper gave the Bucs an early 2-0 lead and that was as close as the Huskies would be all evening.

Jack Norman found his brother Luke open for an easy basket, Austin Skaden completed a drive to the basket and Lloyd added a baseline jumper to put BEA on top 8-0 five and a half minutes into the game.

JCC scored their first points, a long-range trey, with 11:17 left in the first half and quickly added a layup off of a steal to make it an 8-5 ballgame.

Lloyd answered with a 3-pointer and then Jack Norman drove to the basket for a left-handed layup to give BEA a 13-5 lead. Another trey by Lloyd and a layup by Gabe Torres increased the Maroon and Gold’s advantage to 18-5.

“I thought we did a better job of taking care of the ball and getting good shots tonight,” Swanson added.

The Bucs would take their biggest lead of the first half when a steal and layup by Jack Norman had them on top of the Huskies 23-12 with just under six minutes remaining in the opening stanza.

JCC would go on an 8-0 scoring run to cut BEA’s lead to 23-20 but another basket by Lloyd from outside the arc, plus two free throws by the 6-foot-5 junior put the Bucs up by eight points with 3:24 to go until halftime.

The teams would go into their locker rooms at the intermission with the Bucs on top 31-24.

Lloyd opened the second half with a basket off of an offensive rebound and another trey to give BEA a 36-24 lead. However, he also picked up his third foul with 15:46 remaining in the contest.

Swanson kept Lloyd in the game and the Bucs continued to build on their lead.

Austin Skaden, starting for BEA in place of the injured Abe Kokos, had a streak where he was involved in 11 straight Buccaneer points. First, he swished a 3-pointer before dishing off to Luke Norman for an easy basket. Then, the junior guard nailed two more treys to push BEA’s lead to 55-37 with 5:10 left in the game.

“Austin was vital to our success tonight,” Swanson noted. “He hit some threes and he did a good job of getting in the passing lanes on defense.”

The Huskies did hit some 3-pointers and eventually closed to within 10 points of the Bucs, but the hometown team maintained a double-digit lead before the buzzer sounded with BEA winning 63-51.

“I need to give a shout-out to Max Loge,” Swanson said. “He saw his first extensive action on varsity tonight and he kept his composure and gave us some much-needed minutes.”

Lloyd recorded another double-double and led the team with 26 points and 13 rebounds. Torres had 12 points, four steals and three assists. Skaden finished with 12 points and three assists. Luke Norman tallied seven points and six rebounds and Loge came off the bench to grab five rebounds.

As a team, the Bucs were 15 of 35 from the field on their 2-point attempts and 8 of 14 on their 3-point tries. They went to the free-throw line 12 times and made nine of their shots.

BEA held a slight edge over JCC in rebounding. The Bucs had 25 defensive boards and 10 offensive boards for a total of 35. The Huskies had a total of 21 rebounds with 17 of those coming on the defensive end of the court.

The Bucs went on the road on Feb. 24 to take on the Medford Tigers and will return home on March 1, when they host Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton. Their final regular-season game of the year is Friday, March 4 against Worthington. That game will also be played in Blue Earth.