BEA downs St. James Area 82-64
Team marches home with the victory after defeating the Saints
Will Bromeland’s 25 first-half points helped the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers build a 48-31 halftime lead over the St. James Area Saints in a Big South Conference boys basketball game on Dec. 21. The Bucs would go on to triumph over the Saints 82-64 and improve their overall record to 5-1 while St. James Area fell to 1-4.
The Saints grabbed their only lead of the night when Wyatt Haler converted an offensive rebound into a basket.
A floater in the lane by BEA’s Max Loge and a drive for a basket by Bromeland gave the Bucs their first lead of the night at 4-2.
St. James Area’s Bennett Flohrs tied the game at 4-4 before Bromeland’s first 3-pointer of the night gave BEA the lead for good at 7-4.
A drive for a basket by Bromeland and a 3-pointer by Branson Hauskins put the Bucs up by eight points at 12-4 just under three minutes into the game.
The Bucs’ ability to get to the basket was a big factor in building their 17-point halftime lead.
BEA guard Gage Barker scored on three consecutive layups that helped them increase their lead to 12 points at 27-15 with just under 12 minutes to play in the opening half.
The first layup came when the Bucs’ Jacob Grandgenett grabbed a rebound and threw an outlet pass to Barker, who had gotten behind the Saints’ defense, and he took the ball in for an easy basket.
BEA’s next two times down the court saw Barker drive by the St. James defenders for two more layups.
The Maroon and Gold increased their lead to 17 points with just over eight minutes remaining in the opening stanza when Grandgenett was fouled while scoring on a backdoor pass from Taylor Davids. Grandgenett made the free throw to complete the conventional 3-point play and put the Bucs on top 36-17.
The Saints reeled off five straight points to cut the Bucs’ lead to 12 points at 36-24.
However, BEA was able to extend their advantage back to 17 points at 48-31 by the time the horn sounded ending the first half.
The Bucs continued to expand their lead in the opening minutes of the second half. Hauskins’ 3-pointer with 12:32 left in the game gave BEA their largest lead of the night at 65-37.
Although St. James Area was able to close their deficit to less than 20 points, they were never able to threaten BEA and the Bucs went home with an 82-64 victory.
The Bucs blistered the nets from 2-point range by making 23 of their 35 attempts (66 percent). BEA was 11-for-32 from 3-point range (34 percent).
St. James Area was 24-for-50 from inside the arc (48 percent) but only 4-for-22 (18 percent) from outside the arc.
BEA made three of their seven shots from the charity stripe while St. James Area converted four of their 10 attempts from the free-throw line.
The Saints out-rebounded the Bucs by a 48-37 margin. BEA had six steals and eight deflections while St. James Area had four steals and two deflections.
Turnovers were fairly even with the Bucs having eight and the Saints finishing with 11.
Bromeland led BEA with 33 points followed by Barker with 12, and Hauskins and Grandgenett with 10 each.
In addition to scoring six points, Loge led the Bucs with seven assists and also pulled down six rebounds. Bromeland had the most rebounds for BEA with a total of 12 and the most steals with three.
Hauskins and Sully Dahlberg each had two blocked shots for the Bucs.
The Bucs were back home for the BEA Holiday Tournament Dec. 28-29.