Gage Barker goes up for a shot during Blue Earth Area’s 74-64 victory over the Maple River Eagles on Tuesday, March 4. The Bucs had a big lead midway through the final half. The Eagles got withing five points but BEA held on for the win.

With a blizzard approaching from the west, the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers boys basketball team stormed into the Maple River gymnasium on March 4 and defeated the Eagles 74-64 to advance to the next round of the Section 2AA Tournament.

The No. 10-seeded Bucs advanced to the next round of the playoffs where they faced No. 2-seeded Glencoe-Silver Lake at Glencoe on Thursday, March 6. Results of that contest will be in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

BEA got off to a good start against No. 7-seeded Maple River. The Eagles would never lead in the game. The Bucs scored the first nine points of the contest courtesy of two 3-pointers by Branson Hauskins and one by Will Bromeland.

The Eagles got on the board with a pair of turn-around jumpers by their big man, Wyatt Birr, before Hauskins buried another shot from behind the arc to give the Bucs a 12-4 lead.

BEA made a total of eight 3-pointers during the opening half and went into the intermission with a 39-24 lead.

The Bucs got off to a strong start in the second half with Bromeland hitting a turn-around jumper before draining a 3-pointer while the Eagles got two more points from Birr to increase BEA’s lead to 44-26.

After Birr worked free for another two points from inside the lane, Barker took the ball into the paint to add two more to the Bucs’ total.

Maple River missed their next shot and BEA’s Jacob Grandgenett grabbed the rebound and brought the ball up the court. When the senior guard saw that no defenders had picked him up, he burst to the basket for a layup and a 48-28 lead for the Bucs.

The Eagles cut their deficit to 15 points before a 3-pointer by the Bucs’ Caden Juba with just under 13 minutes to play in the game put BEA on top by 18, 51-33.

After Birr sank two free throws, Juba found Grandgenett alone under the basket for an easy two points. Sully Dahlberg got into the act with a 3-pointer before Barker and Grandgenett each scored on drives. With 11 minutes remaining in the game, the Bucs appeared to be in good shape with a 60-37 lead.

BEA was ahead 62-46 with 6:15 to play before Maple River outscored the Bucs 10-2 during the next three minutes to narrow the Maroon and Gold’s advantage to 64-56 at the 2:37 mark.

Barker’s 3-pointer with 1:49 just beat the shot clock and gave the Bucs a little breathing room with their lead now 67-56.

The Eagles didn’t give up. Following a conventional 3-point play by Birr and a basket from outside the arc by Zach Trio, Maple River had cut BEA’s advantage to five points at 67-62 with 1:19 showing on the scoreboard clock.

Bromeland’s clutch baseline 3-pointer with 53 seconds left gave the Bucs some breathing room at 70-62. Barker and Bromeland each sank a pair of free throws to give BEA a 74-62 lead with 28 seconds left to play. Maple River added two more points before the game ended but the Bucs went home with a 74-64 victory.

BEA ended up going 13-for-34 (38.2 percent) on their shots from outside the arc. They were 13-for-22 (59.1 percent) from inside the arc. The Bucs made nine of their 13 (69.2 percent) free-throw attempts.

Maple River was 15-for-24 (62.5 percent) on 2-point attempts and 6-for-30 (20 percent) on 3-point attempts. They shot 20 free throws and made 16 (80 percent).

The Bucs scored 24 points in the paint compared to 28 for the Eagles.

BEA held the edge in rebounding by a 37-30 margin. Turnovers were pretty even with the Bucs having nine and the Eagles committing seven.

Bromeland had a double-double with 27 points and 14 rebounds. Barker finished with 21 points and five rebounds. Hauskins tallied 14 points and Juba finished with five rebounds.

Juba and Bromeland each had five assists while Barker finished with four.

Birr led the Eagles with 28 points and 10 rebounds, Zach Trio had 17 points and six rebounds and Avery Bergemann totaled eight points and seven rebounds. Trio led Maple River with nine assists.

With the win, BEA improves their overall record to 13-13 and completes the season sweep of Maple River, having defeated the Eagles 63-54 on Jan. 17.

Maple River ends their season with a record of 17 wins and 10 losses. The Eagles had an 8-2 record in the South Central Conference.