BEA’s Will Bromeland (23) draws a crowd of LCWM defenders while taking the ball to the hoop in the Bucs’ 71-67 victory over the Knights on Jan. 5.

One night after earning a hard-fought victory over the Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights, the Blue Earth Area boys basketball team was back in action hosting the Jackson County Central Huskies.

Though the Bucs got off to a great start, it was the Huskies who went home with an 81-40 victory.

BEA senior forward Will Bromeland came out on fire. He sank his first five three-point shots and added a free throw in the first four minutes of the game to give the Bucs a 16-5 lead.

The Bucs were still leading by 11 points at 20-9 with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half.

JCC seemed to catch fire while BEA had trouble putting the ball through the hoop and during the next three and a half minutes the Huskies outscored the Bucs 14-2 to take a 23-22 lead.

The Huskies kept pulling away and by the time the buzzer sounded to end the first half, JCC was leading 40-27.

Things did not improve for BEA in the second half. JCC outscored the Maroon and Gold 22-2 in the first seven minutes of the second stanza to open up an insurmountable 62-29 lead.

The game ended with running time and an 81-40 JCC victory.

Bromeland finished with 24 points while Dahlberg tallied 12. Bromeland also led the team in rebounding with seven.

The Huskies controlled the boards, outrebounding the Bucs by a 47-29 margin.

Turnovers were fairly even with the Bucs committing 14 to the Huskies’ 13.

As a team the Bucs were 9-for-27 (33 percent) from inside the arc and 6-for-25 (24 percent) from outside the arc. They made four of their six free throws (67 percent).

JCC was 21-for-34 (62 percent) from two-point range and 12-for-34 (35 percent) from three-point range. The Huskies made three of their nine free throws (33 percent).

After facing Redwood Valley on the road on Jan. 9, the boys will travel to Windom to take on the Eagles on Jan. 13.

Look for stories on those games in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

BEA 71, LCWM 67

The Blue Earth Area boys basketball team improved their record to 7-2 when they defeated the Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights 71-67 in a non-conference game on Monday, Jan. 5.

The opening 10 minutes of the contest saw the two teams trade being in the lead several times.

The score was tied 17-17 when the Bucs’ Ryder Dutton swished a baseline trey which put BEA on top for good. Will Bromeland scored on two drives to the basket for four more points and a 24-17 Bucs’ lead before the Knights’ Jack Goeringer hit a shot from behind the arc to cut the Maroon and Gold’s lead to 24-20.

Bromeland converted an offensive rebound into two points and then Sully Dahlberg converted a steal into a layup that extended BEA’s lead to 28-20. Another basket by Dahlberg gave the Bucs a 10-digit lead at 30-20 with 1:40 to play until intermission.

LCWM scored the final two points of the opening half to make the score 30-22 heading into the final 18 minutes.

BEA maintained an eight to 12 point lead through the first six minutes of the second half. However, with the score 49-38 in the Bucs’ favor, the Knights went on a 9-0 run that cut BEA’s lead to two points at 49-47 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Bromeland put an end to LCWM’s run with a drive to the basket. The Bucs’ leading scorer then scored from behind the arc to give the hometown team a little breathing room at 54-47. Tate Elzenga made two free throws to put BEA on top 56-47 with 8:07 showing on the game clock.

LCWM would pull within two points of the Bucs with 46 seconds left in the game. Following a timeout, Dahlberg converted a drive to the basket into two points but the Knights’ Charlie Gengler put the ball through the hoop with 4.3 seconds left to make the score 69-67.

The Bucs inbounded the ball to Bromeland who was immediately fouled. Bromeland stepped to the free-throw line and sank both shots to secure the 71-67 victory for BEA.

BEA was led in scoring by Bromeland and Dahlberg. Bromeland finished with five treys, was 7-for-9 from two-point range and made two of his three free throw-attempts to finish with 31 points. Dahlberg was 4-for-5 on his shots inside the arc while also making five three-pointers for a total of 23 points.

Peter Fletcher led the Bucs in rebounds with nine and Caden Juba was the team leader in assists with four.

Colton Buss paced the Knights with 29 points.

As a team, BEA was 14-for-22 (64 percent) from inside the arc and 13-for-24 (54 percent) from outside the arc. The Bucs shot nine free throws and made four (44 percent).

LCWM was 12-for-24 (50 percent) from two-point range and 13-for-29 (45 percent) from three-point range. They were 4-for-6 (67 percent) shooting free throws.

The Knights had a 28-23 edge in rebounds. Each team recorded 13 turnovers.