Lola Lundquist (5) gets a shot off in the lane to score two of her 21 points against the St. James Area Saints.

The Blue Earth Area girls faced the Luverne Cardinals in a Big South Conference basketball game on Monday night, Feb. 2. Luverne, playing on their home court, triumphed over BEA 73-54.

BEA kept things close during the opening minutes of the contest. The Bucs’ Myla Eastman drained a three-pointer at the 14-minute mark to tie the game at 11-11. However, BEA did not score again until over five minutes later when Emily Schrader scored from inside the lane. Meanwhile, Luverne had scored 12 points to take a 23-13 lead.

By the time the buzzer sounded to end the first half, the hometown Cardinals had increased their lead to 44-22.

The scoring in the second half was much closer with the Bucs actually outscoring the Cardinals by a 32-29 margin.

Individually, only one BEA player reached double figures in scoring. Lola Lundquist led the Bucs with 11 points. Ella Swanson and Eastman each sank three shots from behind the arc to score nine points. Madelyn Humburg tallied seven points, Grace Schavey had five and Schrader and Emersen Weir each had four.

Humberg led BEA with nine rebounds and Swanson was the team leader in assists and steals with three each.

The Bucs were 12-for-37 (32.4 percent) from inside the arc and 8-for-28 (28.6 percent) from outside the arc. BEA attempted 10 free throws and made six (60 percent).

Luverne was 22-for-36 (61.6 percent) on their two-point attempts and 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) from three-point range.

The Cardinals went to the charity stripe a total of 32 times and made 20 (62.5 percent) of their shots.

The rebounding edge went to Luverne by a 40-26 margin.

The Bucs played host to Jackson County Central on Feb. 5 and then hosted Redwood Valley on Feb. 6. BEA will be at home again on Feb. 9 when they host St. Clair.

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

St. James 76, BEA 56

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team kept the score close through the majority of their game against St. James Area. However, the Saints proved to be too strong and pulled away for a 76-56 victory in a game played in Blue Earth on Jan. 30.

St. James Area shot the ball very well from two-point range while BEA struggled to put the ball through the hoop in the second half.

The Saints led at the half 36-31 and then outscored the Bucs 40-25 in the final stanza to go home with the 76-56 win.

BEA was 13-for-33 (39.4 percent) on their shots from inside the arc compared to 27-for-53 (50.9 percent) for St. James Area. On shots from outside the arc, the Bucs were 8-for-28 (28.6 percent) compared to 4-for-19 (21.1 percent) for the Saints.

BEA was 6-for-9 (66.7 percent) on their free-throw attempts while St. James Area was 10-for-19 (52.6 percent).

The Saints won the battle of the boards by a 47-37 margin and the Bucs committed 18 turnovers to nine for the visitors.

Lola Lundquist was the leading scorer for BEA with 21 points. Also reaching double figures in scoring for the Bucs were Ella Swanson with 12 and Emersen Weir with 11. Myla Eastman finished with seven points, Madelyn Humburg had three and Emily Schrader finished with two.

Weir led the Bucs with six rebounds while Lundquist, Humburg, Eastman and Schrader each had five.

BEA 73, TCU 58

Lola Lundquist and Myla Eastman combined to score 53 points in the Buccaneers’ 73-59 triumph over the host Tri-City United Titans.

The Bucs began to pull away four minutes into the game. Two three-pointers by Lundquist and one by Ella Swanson helped BEA build a 15-6 lead with around 13 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Bucs led 39-29 heading into the final stanza only to watch the Titans rally and tie the game at 41-41 four and a half minutes into the second half. The contest was tied at 47-47 when Madelyn Humburg put BEA in the lead with a basket just inside the three-point line. Eastman scored the next nine points for the Maroon and Gold by sinking three shots from outside the arc. Ludquist and Emersen Weir each added baskets and, with seven minutes remaining in the game, the Bucs led 60-49 and were on their way to securing the victory.

Lundquist finished with 28 points and Eastman tallied 25. Weir finished with eight points, Swanson had seven, Humburg had three and Emily Schrader had two.

Eastman led the team in rebounds with seven followed by Lundquist with six and Humburg with five. Weir and Lundquist each had four assists and Swanson had three steals.

As a team, BEA made 50 percent of their shots from inside the arc, going 19-for-38. They were 11-for-31 (35.5 percent) from outside the arc and 2-for-4 (50 percent) on their free-throw attempts.

TCU was 20-for-54 (37 percent) from inside the arc and 1-for-12 (8.3 percent) from outside the arc. The Titans shot 29 free throws and made 16 (55.2 percent).