Will Bromeland, above, shoots from behind the three-point line. Bromeland finished with 28 points.

While the late winter breeze may have been cooling off the temperatures outside last Thursday evening, things were heating up inside the basketball gymnasium at Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial High School in anticipation of the Section 2AA Quarterfinal playoff game between the host Knights and the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers.

And the game did not disappoint.

After trailing by 14 points 10 minutes into the game, the No. 5-seeded Bucs rallied to upset the No. 4-seeded Knights 58-53.

With the win, BEA advances to the semifinal round in Section 2AA to face the No. 1-seeded Belle Plaine Tigers at 6 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Taylor Center in Mankato. Belle Plaine moved into the semifinal round after demolishing Albert Lea 101-51 in their quarterfinal game.

The gym was buzzing and had a playoff atmosphere as the Bucs and the Knights took to the floor for the opening tipoff.

It was LCWM who came out on fire. It seemed the Knights could do no wrong in the early minutes of the game while taking a 12-6 lead five and a half minutes into the game. The Bucs called a timeout to try and slow the Knights down, but less than two minutes later LCWM had increased their lead to 14 points at 20-6 and caused BEA to call another timeout.

The home team still maintained a 14-point advantage at 23-9 with 8:19 left to play in the first half when the tide began to turn.

“We increased our defensive pressure,” BEA head coach Colby Swanson said. “And our guys responded.”

Indeed. The Bucs outscored the Knights by a 24-3 margin during the final eight minutes of the opening stanza to take a 33-26 lead at the half.

“Caden Juba made some big plays,” Swanson commented. “His drive and resulting And One provided a big lift for the team.”

BEA’s run began when center Peter Fletcher muscled one in under the basket. Four minutes later Juba’s steal and resulting short jumper had the Bucs within one point of the Knights at 23-22.

BEA took the lead at the 3:19 mark of the first half when Fletcher grabbed an offensive rebound and passed the ball to Ryder Dutton who was set up behind the arc. Dutton drilled the 3-pointer to give the Bucs a 25-23 lead.

While everyone contributed to the victory, it was senior Will Bromeland who seemed to come up with the big basket or rebound whenever the Bucs needed one. The senior made seven of his 10 shots from behind the arc and finished with 28 points. He also pulled down 11 rebounds to achieve a double-double for the game.

After taking the lead in the first half, BEA never trailed. LCWM tied the game at 36-36 a little over five minutes into the final stanza, but they never regained the lead.

The Bucs were nursing a 47-44 lead with 8:35 remaining in the game when Sully Dahlberg hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Maroon and Gold their largest advantage of the game at 53-44 with 5:20 showing on the game clock.

LCWM pulled within three points of BEA when their 6-foot-11 forward, Carter Lowis, made a shot from behind the arc that made the score 56-53 in favor of BEA with 53 seconds left in regulation.

The Knights had the ball with less than 20 seconds left but could not score and had to foul the Bucs. Bromeland scored the final two points of the game on free throws with 1.3 seconds left on the clock.

BEA’s coach had this to say about his star player

“Will Bromeland was just being Will Bromeland,” Swanson said. “He is a generational player who has put the work in to become the player he is.”

Dahlberg finished with 11 points, Dutton tallied nine and Juba had seven. Fletcher led the team in assists with three and also had five rebounds.

The Bucs had 31 rebounds to the Knights’ 27 and 11 turnovers to LCWM’s 10.

BEA 74, Blooming Prairie 48

The No. 5-seeded Blue Earth Area Buccaneers opened the Section 2AA Basketball Playoffs with a 74-48 victory over the No. 12-seeded Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms in Blue Earth on March 3. The win sent the Bucs into the second round where they faced No. 4-seeded Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial on the Knights’ home floor.

Scoring was at a premium during the opening minutes of the contest between the Bucs and the Blossoms. The two teams scored a total of only 11 points during the first five minutes of the game with BEA holding a 6-5 lead.

The Blossoms took their only lead of the night with 12:33 to play in the opening half when Gabe Staloch scored on a back-door pass to put Blooming Prairie on top 7-6.

Less than one minute later, BEA’s Ryder Dutton sank the first of his six 3-pointers for the game to put the Maroon and Gold on top for good with a 9-7 lead.

A traditional 3-point play by the Bucs’ Will Bromeland plus Bromeland’s basket from inside the lane extended BEA’s lead to 14-7 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Blossoms had cut the Bucs’ lead to four points at 17-13 at the 5:35 mark when Dutton, Bromeland and Tate Elzenga all sank shots from beyond the arc while Blooming Prairie’s Wyatt Rafdal countered with a 3-pointer that had BEA out in front by a 26-16 margin.

A Caden Juba to Sully Dahlberg pass led to an easy basket by Dahlberg and a 12 point Bucs’ lead.

By the time the horn sounded signifying the start of intermission, BEA had built their lead to 15 points at 37-22.

The Bucs continued to pad their lead in the second half and prevented the Blossoms from mounting any kind of rally. BEA ended up outscoring Blooming Prairie 37-26 over the final 18 minutes to claim the 26-point victory.

Bromeland recorded a double-double for the night with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Dutton was 6-for-9 shooting 3-pointers to finish with 18 points. Dahlberg made nine of his 12 shots from inside the arc to also finish with 18 points.

In addition to Bromeland’s 10 rebounds, Juba had six and Elzenga had five. Juba finished the game with six assists.

As a team, BEA was 20-for-36 (56 percent) from inside the arc and 10-for-24 (42 percent) from outside the arc. The Bucs shot 80 percent from the free-throw line, making four of their five attempts.

Blooming Prairie made 15 of their 35 (43 percent) of their 2-point shots and were 3-for-23 (13 percent) on their 3-point attempts. They attempted 15 free throws and made nine (60 percent).

Each team had 37 rebounds. BEA committed 12 turnovers to 15 for Blooming Prairie.