Will Bromeland went to the basket for a second-half layup against the St. James Saints on Tuesday, Jan. 10. After falling behind early in the contest, the Bucs came on strong to take a 50-34 halftime lead. BEA went on to triumph over the Saints 88-66.

The Blue Earth Area boys basketball team returned to the friendly confines of their home gymnasium on Tuesday, Jan. 10, looking to put an end to their two-game losing streak.

Hosting the St. James Saints, the game did not get off to a good start for the Maroon and Gold. But, a late first-half rally allowed the Bucs to take the lead and pull away for an 88-66 victory.

“The defense started to play with more energy. Abe Kokos and Austin Skaden hit some big shots to get us going on offense,” BEA head coach Colby Swanson said after the game. “We played hard and our defensive pressure helped turn things around.”

After scoring the first two points of the contest, the Bucs fell behind by 12 points, 21-9, with 10 minutes to go until halftime.

A basket off an offensive rebound by Ashton Lloyd and two consecutive 3-pointers by Kokos trimmed the deficit to four points.

BEA had cut the Saints’ lead to one point at 26-25 with just under five minutes to play until intermission.

A drive by Will Bromeland was good for a basket to put the Bucs on top for the first time since the opening seconds of the came.

A 3-pointer by Anthony Sletta of St. James put the visitors back on top 29-27. It would be the last Saints’ lead of the night.

Two consecutive 3-pointers by Skaden ignited a 15-0 BEA run to allow the home team to take a 42-29 lead.

Following Skaden’s baskets, forward Jack Norman pulled down a defensive rebound and threw an outlet pass to Bromeland who went in for a layup. Skaden then swished another shot from outside of the arc and the Bucs were ahead 38-29 with 2:37 remaining in the half.

After scoring only 25 points in the first 13 and a half minutes of the opening half, BEA scored 25 more points in the final four and a half minutes to take a 50-34 halftime lead.

The Bucs built on their lead in the final 18 minutes of the game and both teams pulled their starters in the closing minutes of the contest and the Bucs improved their record to 8-2 with the 88-66 triumph.

BEA shot almost as well from outside of the arc than they did inside the arc.They made 19 of 44 (43 percent) 2-point attempts and 11 of 27 (41 percent) of their 3-point shots.

The Bucs went to the free-throw line 21 times and made 17 of their shots (81 percent).

BEA won the rebounding battle over St. James by a 44-36 margin.

Turnovers were fairly even with the Bucs having 10 and the Saints finishing with 11.

Skaden made five 3-pointers on the night and led all scorers with 23 points. Bromeland tallied 19 points, Lloyd had 12, Norman finished with nine and Kokos added eight.

Lloyd pulled down 12 rebounds to lead BEA. Norman had nine rebounds while Skaden and Gage Barker each ended up with six.

The Bucs were at home against Waseca on Friday, Jan. 13.

Results of that and other games will be in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

LCWM 69, BEA 47

The Blue Earth Area boys’ basketball team suffered their second straight loss of the season when they fell to the host Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights 69-47 in a non-conference game on Saturday, Jan. 7.

The teams entered the game with identical 7-1 records but LCWM built a 32-16 lead at the half before outscoring BEA 37-31 in the second half to claim the victory.

It was a cold-shooting night for the Bucs who made only nine of 28 field goal attempts from inside the arc and five of 24 attempts from outside of the arc.

BEA did shoot well from the free-throw line where they made 14 of their 16 attempts.

The Knights won the battle on the boards by a 40-34 margin.

LCWM scored 40 of their points from inside the paint and made over 55 percent of their shots from 2-point range.

The Bucs committed 13 turnovers to only eight for the Knights.

Leading scorers for the Bucs were Ashton Lloyd with 14 and Gage Barker with 12.

Lloyd also led the team in rebounds with nine while Austin Skaden had five

Abram Kokos tallied three assists and Austin Skaden had three steals.

JWP 62, BEA 54

The Buccaneers’ seven-game undefeated record suffered its first blemish on Thursday, Jan. 5, when they traveled to Janesville and were defeated by the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Bulldogs 62-54 in non-conference action.

BEA fell behind in the early going and trailed 31-18 at halftime.

Although they rallied to outscore JWP 36-31 in the second half, it was not enough to overtake the Bulldogs, who improved their record to 5-3 with the victory.

The Bucs shot 47 percent on 2-pointers. They shot 21 percent on shots beyond the arc.

JWP outrebounded BEA by a 38-34 margin.

Ashton Lloyd had a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Max Loge reached double figures in scoring with 11 points and Abram Kokos finished with seven.

Jack Norman pulled down eight rebounds and Kokos had five.

Austin Skaden led the team with five assists.