The Blue Earth Area boys basketball team traveled to Jackson on Tuesday night, Jan. 23, to take on the Jackson County Central Huskies in a Big South Conference game. Like the first time the two teams met, which was on Dec. 1 of last year, the contest featured many lead changes with neither team able to take control. But, unfortunately for the Bucs, the Huskies prevailed in both games, winning the latest battle 76-68 after triumphing in the first game 67-65.

BEA was within three points of JCC trailing 71-68 in the closing minute before the Huskies scored the final five points to claim the eight-point victory.

JCC set the tone for their success early by aggressively hitting the offensive boards and gaining many second and third-chance opportunities to score.

In fact, the Huskies’ first basket of the night came when Roman Voss grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball through the hoop for a 2-0 JCC lead.

Will Bromeland countered with a 3-pointer for the first of his 30 points for the night to put BEA in front 3-2. The teams continued to go hard at each other and were tied at 13-13 when the Huskies scored five straight points for an 18-13 lead.

JCC maintained their lead but BEA kept the game close until they tied the game up at 24-24 when Sully Dahlberg stole the ball from Voss and went in for an uncontested layup.

Later, with the Huskies clinging to a one-point lead at 31-30, Bromeland drove to the lane before sinking a turn-around jumper to put the Bucs on top 32-31. Max Loge added two free throws and then had a nice assist which led to teammate Gage Barker scoring on a layup to extend BEA’s advantage to 36-31.

However, JCC answered with seven consecutive points to retake the lead at 38-36. Loge’s drive and left-handed layup tied the score at 38-38 to end the first half.

A scary moment occurred with 6:44 remaining in the first half when Branson Hauskins went down with what appeared to be a serious lower leg injury. The game was halted for many minutes and both teams were sent to their respective locker rooms while Hauskins was attended to on the floor. The extent of Hauskins’ injury was not known at the time this article was written.

Bromeland scored the first two points of the second half when he sank a jumper from inside of the paint, but the Huskies answered with a 3-pointer to take the lead and they never trailed for the remainder of the game. They led by as many as nine points more than once during the closing half.

The Bucs continued to battle and after falling behind 62-53 they ran off seven straight points to pull withing two points of the Huskies. But, they were never able to regain the lead and JCC held on for the 76-68 victory.

The Bucs shot 64.3 percent from inside of the arc on 18-for-28 shooting. They made 10 of their 26 3-point attempts for a 38.5 percent success rate. They shot four free throws and made two.

JCC attempted 45 2-point shots and made 23, or 51.1 percent. They made 47.1 percent of their 3-point attempts by sinking eight of their 17 attempts from outside of the arc. The Huskies went to the free throw line 15 times and made six of their shots.

The battle of the boards was won by JCC with 48 total rebounds to 15 for BEA. Half of the Huskies’ rebounds were on the offensive end of the court.

JCC scored 24 second-chance points to six for BEA. The Huskies scored 42 points in the paint to 34 for the Bucs.

BEA only had 11 turnovers for the night compared to 19 for JCC.

Individually, besides Bromeland’s 30 points, Loge and Taylor Davids had nine each, Barker finished with seven, Hauskins with five and Dahlberg and Jacob Grandgenett with four each.

Noah Dahl led BEA with three rebounds. Grandgenett had six assists to lead the team while Loge added five. Three Bucs – Loge, Dahlberg and Bromeland – each had two steals.

After hosting the Fairmont Cardinals on Friday, Jan. 26, the Bucs played Minnesota Valley Lutheran on the campus of Minnesota State – Mankato on Saturday, Jan. 27. BEA travels to St. Peter to face the Saints on Tuesday, Jan. 30.