Gage Barker looks to score two points for the Bucs in their game against Windom.

The Windom Eagles made only three of their 11 free throw attempts when they came to Blue Earth to take on the Buccaneers in boys’ basketball on Monday, Jan. 16. The two that Abe McKibbin made with 9.8 seconds left in the game gave the Eagles a 72-68 lead and left the Bucs one point short when BEA’s Ashton Lloyd sank a 3-pointer with three seconds left on the clock.

Windom’s 72-71 victory gave BEA their second straight loss against a team that bombarded the basket with 3-point attempts. The Eagles took 44 shots from outside the arc and made 13. In contrast, the Bucs fired up 21 3-point attempts and made six.

The Eagles held a 40-30 lead going into the second half. Less than four minutes into the final stanza, the Bucs had cut Windom’s lead in half on the strength of treys by Max Loge and Abe Kokos and trailed 43-38 with 14:42 remaining in the game.

However, just when it looked like BEA might pull even closer, Windom responded with five straight points to boost their lead back up to 10 points. And, that is how the second half seemed to go. The Bucs would get within five or six points but the Eagles would pull away again.

Two thirds of the way through the second half, the Bucs were able to finally close the gap.

Trailing by six points, BEA’s Will Bromeland found teammate Gage Barker open for a bucket inside the lane and Loge followed with a turn-around jumper to cut Windom’s lead to two points at 59-57 with 5:16 showing on the scoreboard clock.

The Eagles responded with another 3-pointer but Bromeland answered with his own basket from outside the arc to make the score 62-60 at the 4:50 mark.

Another trey by the visitors had the Bucs trailing by five points again but a baseline drive by Bromeland and a basket by Lloyd off an assist by Loge made it a one-point game in the Eagles favor with three and a half minutes left to play.

With one minute remaining in the contest and trailing 70-68, the Bucs were forced to foul to regain possession of the ball. It worked the first time when Windom missed the front end of a one-and-one and BEA grabbed the rebound. The Bucs failed to convert their possession into any points and that is when they fouled McKibbin and he made what turned out to be the game-winning free throws.

Both teams made over 50 percent of their 2-point field goal attempts. BEA was 22 of 44 from inside the arc while Windom was 15 of 26.

The Bucs shot six free throws and made five.

BEA led Windom in rebounding by a 43-38 margin. The Bucs had 10 turnovers to only five for the Eagles.

Three BEA players reached double figures in scoring. Lloyd let the team with 18 points followed by Bromeland with 15 and Barker with 13. Loge tallied nine points and Kokos finished with eight.

Kokos and Lloyd each had 10 rebounds while Jack Norman finished with eight. Norman also led the team with four assists.

BEA played host to Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Friday, Jan. 20. Look for results of that game in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

Waseca 69, BEA 52

It was a battle of two teams with identical 8-2 records when the Waseca Bluejays came to Blue Earth to take on the Buccaneers in boys basketball on Friday, Jan. 13.

The Bluejays used their quickness to tally 20 steals and force a total of 22 turnovers on their way to a 69-52 victory over the Bucs in a Big South Conference clash.

Waseca came out on fire and made four of their first five 3-point attempts in the opening minutes of the contest

The Bucs had some sharpshooters of their own in the early part of the game and utilized treys by Abe Kokos and Austin Skaden to keep pace with the Bluejays.

Waseca had built their lead up to nine points at 25-14 when Skaden and Kokos knocked down back-to-back shots from outside the arc to cut the Bluejays’ lead to 25-20 with just under 10 minutes to play in the first half.

A steal and layup by Ashton Lloyd cut Waseca’s lead to three points at 25-22.

With 1:10 to go until intermission, BEA was still within five points of Waseca and trailed 31-26.

However, the Bluejays sank two free throws and then forced two turnovers by the Bucs which the visitors converted to baskets to give Waseca a 37-26 lead at the half.

The Bucs were unable to overtake the Bluejays in the second half and Waseca improved their record to 9-2 while the Bucs dropped to 8-3.

Both teams had good shooting percentages from 2-point range. BEA made 68.8 percent of their shots from inside the arc compared to 56.4 percent for Waseca. However, the Bluejays attempted 39 2-pointers compared to only 16 for the Bucs.

BEA ended up making eight of their 29 attempts from outside of the arc (28 percent) while Waseca shot 23 times from behind the arc and made seven (30 percent).

Each team made all of their free-throw attempts. The Bucs were 6-for-6 from the charity stripe and the Bluejays were 4-for-4.

Waseca had more rebounds than BEA by a 33-23 margin.

Leading scorers for the Bucs were Lloyd with 14, Kokos with 12 and Will Bromeland with eight. Skaden and Jack Norman each tallied six points.

Norman led BEA with eight rebounds. Lloyd had five.