Ashton Lloyd, shown holding the ball, is joined by his senior teammates after he reached the 1,000 career point mark during Blue Earth Area’s game at Fairmont. Left to right are Abe Kokos, Jack Norman, Austin Skaden and Nick Barke.

“It always helps when shots go in the basket,” Blue Earth Area boys basketball coach Colby Swanson said after the Buccaneers had defeated the St. Peter Saints by 20 points, 79-59, in a battle of Big South Conference foes in Blue Earth on Jan. 31.

After taking a seven-point lead into the locker room at the half, the Bucs blistered the nets in the final 18 minutes of the game, making 73 percent (11 of 15) of their shots from inside the arc.

Swanson was also pleased with his team’s defensive effort.

“St. Peter can score a lot of points,” Swanson commented. “So, to hold them to 59 points was a credit to our defense.”

Each team played without the services of one of their starting players due to illness. For the Saints, Tate Olson did not make the trip to Blue Earth while Jack Norman was unavailable for the Bucs. BEA’s Gage Barker also suffered an injury in the second half and did not return to action.

“Gage had a “stinger” in his arm,” Swanson said. “Thankfully, everybody stepped up tonight and helped us win.”

The Saints took an early 7-3 lead before Austin Skaden found Ashton Lloyd free for a baseline jumper to cut St. Peter’s lead to 7-5.

Barker swished a trey from the corner to put the Bucs on top 8-7. After the Saints’ Joshua Bosacker hit a runner to help the visitors retake the lead 9-8, Barker connected for another long-range shot to give BEA an 11-9 lead.

A conventional 3-pointer by Skaden and Max Loge’s long-range 3-pointer extended the Bucs’ advantage to 17-9.

With 5:51 to go before intermission the Bucs were clinging to a 26-24 lead when Jacob Grandgenett and Lloyd hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make the score 32-24 in favor of BEA.

The first half ended with the Bucs leading the Saints 38-31.

BEA maintained an 8 to 10 point lead most of the second half and were leading 69-59 with just over two minutes to play. The Bucs closed out the game scoring the last 10 points to earn their 11th victory of the year against five defeats.

“It was fun to see guys take advantage of opportunities when they had the chance. We tell the team that everybody always has to be ready because you never know when you might be called to go into the game,” Swanson said. “Jacob Grandgenett and Noah Dahl gave us some valuable minutes tonight and Nick Barke came in late and scored some points.”

For the game, the Bucs shot 64 percent (14 of 22) from 2-point range and 39 percent (14 of 36) on 3-pointers. BEA shot 69 percent (9 of 13) from the free- throw line.

The Saints also shot the ball well from inside the arc, hitting 52 percent (17 of 33) of their shots. They shot 30 percent (6 of 20) from outside the arc and made 58 percent (7 of 12) of their attempts from the charity stripe.

BEA held a 33-29 edge in rebounding and committed 17 turnovers to 21 for St. Peter.

Skaden led the Bucs with 24 points. He also had four assists and three steals. Loge had 11 points, five assists and four steals. Also reaching double figures in scoring was Will Bromeland with 10 points.

Lloyd finished with eight points while Barker, Abe Kokos and Grandgenett each tallied six points.

Lloyd had a team high 10 rebounds and six assists.

BEA played at Waseca on Friday, Feb. 3. Look for the results of that contest in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

BEA 59, Fairmont 44

Fans of the Blue Earth Area boys basketball team traveled to Fairmont on Friday, Jan. 27, hoping to see two things.

First, and most important, they wanted to see the Bucs defeat the Cardinals and sweep the regular season series between the two teams. Second, they were hoping to see BEA senior Ashton Lloyd reach the 1,000 point milestone in his high school career.

The Buccaneer faithful saw both of their wishes come true when BEA defeated Fairmont 59-44 and Lloyd, who began the game needing seven points to reach the 1,000-point plateau, achieved the mark four minutes and 23 seconds into the game.

After the Cards’ Gavin Junkermeier scored to give the home team a 2-0 lead, the Bucs scored the next nine points on a traditional 3-point play by Skaden and two baskets from outside the arc by Lloyd.

Fairmont’s Sawyer Tordsen worked the ball inside for two points before Skaden sliced through the Cards’ defense for a layup and an 11-4 BEA lead.

The Bucs’ defense stifled the Cards and Lloyd scored on BEA’s next trip down the court to put him at 1,001 career points.

Lloyd achieved the 1,000 scoring mark in spite of having a shorter season his sophomore year due to COVID.

He joins Cameron Anderson, Fran Bekaert, Logan Becker, Jeremy Bly, Jordan Becker, Nick Lee, Dennis Tims, Bailey Olson and Garrett Anderson as a member in the group of Buccaneers who have scored at least 1,000 points during their high school career.

“It is a nice honor and I am happy have made it,” Lloyd said.

BEA shot 65 percent from the field in the first half, including making five of their nine 3-point attempts. By the time the horn sounded to signal the intermission, the Bucs held a 36-21 lead over their Big South Conference rivals.

Each team scored 23 points in the second half to give BEA the 59-44 victory.

The Bucs ended up going 18 of 27 (67 percent) on their 2-point shots for the game while making six of their 18 (33 percent) attempts from outside of the arc. The Bucs sank all five of their free-throw attempts in the victory.

Fairmont was 16 of 36 (44 percent) from inside the arc but were only 2 of 17 (12 percent) from outside the arc. The Cards went to the charity stripe 11 times and made six of their shots.

The teams were even in turnovers at 13 apiece while Fairmont held a 29-24 edge in rebounding.

Lloyd led BEA in scoring with 20 points followed by Skaden with 14. Will Bromeland added nine.

Lloyd and Max Loge each had six rebounds and Jack Norman led the team with three assists.

The win by the Bucs improved their overall record to 10-5 while the loss dropped the Cards’ record to 2-11.