The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers boys basketball team made the long trip to Pipestone to take on the Arrows on Jan. 10.

Pipestone Area jumped out to an early lead and fought off a Bucs’ rally in the second half to defeat BEA 73-57.

The Arrows’ physical front line, whose three players measure 6-foot-5, 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-3, combined with some sharp shooting by their guards, enabled the home team to build a 22-7 lead seven minutes into the game.

BEA trailed by 22 points with three and a half minutes remaining in the first half before Sully Dahlberg hit two 3-pointers and a basket off a drive. Dahlberg’s eight-point outburst, coupled with a basket by Jacob Grandgenett, was part of a 10-2 run which trimmed the Arrows’ lead to 14 points at 41-27 with just over a minute to play in the opening stanza. However, Pipestone Area scored the last bucket of the half to go into the intermission with a 43-27 lead.

The Arrows extended their lead to 19 points at 58-39 with eight minutes to play in the game.

Over the next two and a half minutes, BEA outscored Pipestone Area by a 12-4 margin, fueled by seven points by Will Bromeland and five points from Branson Hauskins, and cut the Arrows’ advantage to 11 points at 62-51.

That is as close as the Bucs would come and the Arrows recorded a 16-point victory.

The height of the Pipestone Area players and their ability to get to the basket showed by the 50 points they scored from the paint and their 41-25 advantage over BEA in rebounding.

The Bucs shot 44.1 percent from 2-point range where they made 15 of their 34 attempts. BEA made nine of their 25 (36 percent) 3-point attempts and did not have any free-throw attempts.

Pipestone made 55.6 percent (25-for-45) of their shots from inside the arc. They attempted 16 3-point shots and made five (31.3 percent).

The Arrows went to the charity stripe 11 times and made eight of their shots (72.7 percent).

Each team had seven steals, BEA had 13 turnovers compared to 11 for Pipestone Area.

Bromeland led the Bucs with 18 points, Dahlberg had 15, Gage Barker had nine, Grandgenett had eight and Hauskins finished with nine.

Dahlberg led the team with eight rebounds, Caden Juba had seven assists and three steals.

Pipestone Area was led by Makhi Winter with 28 points and Austin Musch with 24.

The Bucs continued their road trip with games at Jackson County Central on Jan. 16, at Maple River on Jan. 17 and at St. Peter on Jan. 21. The game against the Saints will be their sixth consecutive game on the road. BEA returns to their home floor on Jan. 24, when they host Tri-City United. BEA will also be home on Jan. 27, when they play host to the Waseca Bluejays.