Blue Earth Area Buccaneers girls basketball team trailed the host St. Clair Cyclones 46:43 with just over two and a half minutes left to play in their game on Dec. 17. Unfortunately, the Cyclones made their shots in the closing minutes while the Bucs could only add a free throw to their total. The result was a 55-41 victory for St. Clair.

The Cyclones held a 25-21 lead at the end of the first half before outscoring the Bucs 26-23 in the final stanza to claim the seven-point win.

Both teams shot the ball well from insided the arc. BEA made 13 of their 29 attempts (44.8 percent) while St. Clair was successful on 16 of their 40 attempts (40 percent).

The Bucs made 28.6 percent of their 3-point attempts by converting 4 of their 14 attempts. The Cyclones fired up 43 shots from outside the arc but only made two of those attempts, or 4.7 percent.

BEA was 6-for-10 (60 percent) from the free-throw line while St. Clair converted 13 of their 14 (92.9 percent) attempts from the charity stripe.

Rebounding was fairly even with the Bucs totaling 27 rebounds to 43 for the Cyclones.

Turnovers were a problem for BEA. The Maroon and Gold committed 35 to only 11 for St. Clair.

Lola Lundquist led the Bucs in scoring with 23 points and in rebounding with nine. Jessica Moore pulled down eight rebounds and Grace Schavey finished with six.

Sibley East 43, BEA 41

Carol Schrader’s free throw with 1:42 left to play brought the Blue Earth Area Bucs within one point of the Sibley East Wolverines, but that is as close as the Bucs got and the Wolverines held on for a 43-41 victory in the Maple River Girls Basketball Tournament.

The game, played on Dec. 14, in Mapleton, saw BEA jump out to a 6-0 lead on the strength of 3-pointers by Schrader and Myla Eastman.

The Wolverines rattled off six consecutive points to pull ahead 7-6 before Eastman drained another shot from outside the arc to give BEA a 9-7 lead.

Sibley East tied the score at 9-9 but Eastman hit the third of her four first-half 3-pointers to put BEA in front 12-9.

The back-and-forth scoring continued with the Wolverines tallying six straight points to go back on top 15-12.

With three and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Sibley East was ahead 23-20. Another 3-pointer by Eastman tied the score and a basket by BEA’s Ellaina Moore off a Lola Lundquist assist made the score 25-23 in favor of the Bucs.

A drive by Lundquist gave the Maroon and Gold two more points and the Wolverines added a free throw and the teams headed into the intermission with the score BEA 27, Sibley East 24.

The Wolverines sank a 3-pointer 20 seconds into the second half to tie the game before adding a traditional three-point play and another basket to increase their advantage to five points at 32-27.

BEA spent the majority of the second half trying to catch up.

With seven minutes left in the game and trailing 37-31, Grace Schavey swished the nets for three points, Elaena Schiltz got free underneath the basket for two points and Lundquist grabbed a loose ball and went coast-to-coast for a layup which put BEA in the lead at 38-37.

Less than a minute later the Wolverines hit a 3-pointer to take the lead for good at 40-38 and held on for the two-point victory.

BEA was 6-for-16 (37.5 percent) on their shots from inside the arc and 8-for-27 (29.6 percent) on their shots from outside the arc. The Bucs made half of their 10 free-throw attempts.

Sibley East made 10 of their 26 (30 percent) of their 2-point attempts and four of their 14 (28.6 percent) of their 3-point attempts. The Wolverines also made half of their free-throw attempts, making 11 of 22 shots.

Sibley East had a 34-26 rebounding advantage and had 10 steals to eight for BEA. The Bucs committed 25 turnovers compared to 20 for the Wolverines.

Eastman led BEA in scoring with 16 points, Lundquist had 11 and Schrader finished with seven.

Schavey led the team in rebounding with five followed by Schrader, Lundquist and Eastman who each had four.

Lundquist led the Bucs in assists with eight.

After hosting Tri-City United on Friday, Dec. 20, BEA is off until Dec. 27, when the BEA Holiday Tournament begins.