Sully Dahlberg (15) gets by the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown defenders and switches the ball to his left hand for an easy layup. Dahlberg scored BEA’s last seven points in their 77-71 victory over WEM on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Next for BEA is a Section 2AA playoff game against the Maple River Eagles.

It was the battle of the Buccaneers when the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers came to Blue Earth on Tuesday, Feb. 25 to face the Buccaneers of Blue Earth Area.

On paper the two teams were very evenly matched with WEM sporting a record of 12 wins and 12 losses while host BEA had a record of 11-13 entering the game.

It was a close contest from start to finish with BEA triumphing 77-71 in their final game of the regular season.

Next for BEA is the opening round of the Section 2AA playoffs where the No. 10-seeded Bucs will face a familiar opponent when they travel to Mapleton on Tuesday, March 4 to take on the No. 7-seeded Maple River Eagles. When the two teams met earlier this season on Jan. 17, it was the Bucs who came away with a 63-54 victory.

In their game against WEM last Tuesday, BEA got off to a good start. Branson Hauskins opened the game by sinking a 3-pointer. An offensive rebound by Isaac Anderson led to two more points before Noah Laehn’s basket from outside the arc gave BEA an early 8-2 lead.

WEM got their offense on track and the remainder of the half saw the two teams stay within three points of each other.

It looked like the hometown Bucs were going to take a 3-point lead into the intermission but a 3-pointer by WEM’s Gavin Brown sailed through the net before the buzzer sounded to tie the game at 31-31 at the half.

The second half, much like the first, had neither team being able to gain a big advantage over their opponent and six minutes into the final stanza the score was tied 48-48.

Two consecutive 3-pointers by WEM’s Talen Taylor made the score 54-48 with WEM holding the advantage with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

It was at that point that BEA manufactured a 12-0 run to turn a six-point deficit into a six-point lead with the Maroon and Gold now on top 60-54 with seven minutes to go in the contest.

WEM finally scored a basket to break BEA’s run, but Will Bromeland’s basket from outside the arc combined with Gage Barker and Hauskin’s 2-pointers gave the host team their biggest lead of the night at 68-56 with five minutes showing on the scoreboard clock.

WEM attempted to rally behind a couple more 3-pointers by Brown, but BEA answered each challenge.

BEA’s Sully Dahlberg came up big in the game’s final two minutes by sinking a 3-pointer, scoring on a drive to the basket and making two free throws to tally his team’s final seven points and help BEA to their 77-71 victory.

BEA made 19 of their 32 (59 percent) 2-point attempts during the game while going 9-for-33 (27 percent) on their shots from outside the arc. BEA attempted 15 free throws and made 12 (80 percent).

WEM attempted 30 shots from inside the arc and made 13 (43 percent). They were 14-for-39 (36 percent) on their 3-point shots. WEM went to the charity stripe five times and made three of their shots (60 percent).

WEM won the battle on the boards by a 46-39 margin over BEA.

BEA scored 38 of their points in the paint compared to 22 for WEM. BEA had nine steals and committed 10 turnovers. WEM had five steals and was charged with 18 turnovers.

BEA was led in scoring by Hauskins and Barker who each tallied 22 points. Dahlberg added 13 points, Bromeland had nine and Caden Juba finished with six.

Jacob Grandgenett led the team in rebounding with nine, Barker had seven and Dahlberg had six.

Juba did a great job of distributing the ball and was credited with eight assists during the game.

Taylor and Brown were the top scorers for WEM with 23 points each.