Lundquist scores 35, but Bucs lose to Trojans

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team wrapped up the regular season part of their schedule with a tough 54-51 loss to the Worthington Trojans in Blue Earth on Tuesday night, Feb. 18.

Section 2AA post-season play begins for BEA on Monday, Feb. 24. The No. 14-seeded Bucs go on the road to take on the No. 3-seeded Tri-City United Titans.

Against the Trojans the Bucs played tough defense. However, BEA had difficulty on the boards against the taller Worthington girls which led to too many second-chance points for the visiting team who did most of their damage in the paint.

As close as the game was, BEA never led during the 36 minutes of play. The Trojans took an early 11-2 lead before BEA’s Myla Eastman and Lola Lundquist teamed up to score the next seven points in the contest and narrow Worthington’s advantage to 11-9.

The Trojans pulled away during the remainder of the opening stanza. By the time the horn sounded ending the first half, the Bucs found themselves trailing 26-18.

Six minutes into the second half the Trojans still maintained a six-point lead at 32-26. Lundquist drove the lane for a basket and then went coast-to-coast for two more points and with 13:35 to play in the game, BEA trailed 32-30.

Eight consecutive points by Worthington put the Maroon and Gold down by 10 points at 40-30 with about 11 minutes remaining to play.

A 3-pointer by Lundquist, a free throw by Jessica Moore and another basket from outside the arc by Lundquist cut the Bucs’ deficit to three points at 40-37.

Once again Worthington pulled away and eventually held a 48-40 lead.

BEA wasn’t done yet. When Eastman’s shot from outside the arc sailed through the nets the Bucs found themselves within four points of the Trojans, trailing 50-46. After Worthington made a free throw, Eastman completed a baseline drive for two more points. With 34 seconds left in regulation time, the Bucs were down by three points at 51-48. The Trojans made two free throws before Lundquist drilled a 3-pointer with a couple of seconds left to narrow Worthington’s lead to 53-51.

The Trojans added one more free throw to their total with 1.8 seconds left to go home with a 54-51 victory.

The Bucs were 11-for-41 (26.8 percent) from 2-point range and 8-for-22 (36.4 percent) from 3-point range. They made five of their 11 (45.5 percent) free-throw attempts.

Worthington attempted 57 shots from inside the arc and made 23 (40.4 percent). They did not make any of their 12 shots from behind the arc. They were 8-for-17 at the charity stripe (47.1 percent).

The Trojans scored 44 of their points in the paint compared to 10 for the Bucs and had a 64-32 rebounding advantage over the home team.

BEA committed 16 turnovers to 24 for Worthington.

Lundquist led the Bucs with 35 points while making six of her 11 shots from behind the arc. Eastman tallied 11 points and led the team with eight rebounds. Elaena Schiltz finished with six boards.

St. James Area 81,

BEA 45

The Blue Earth Area girls basketball team trailed by only 10 points at the half against the St. James Area Saints when the two teams met on Saturday, Feb. 15, on the Saints’ home floor.

The Saints, leading 35-25 when the second half started, held the Bucs to only 20 points in the closing stanza while their offense ramped up their attack to put 46 more points on the scoreboard in the second half to earn an 81-45 victory over the Bucs.

BEA was led by Lola Lundquist who made seven of her 14 shots from inside the arc while sinking four 3-pointers and all six of her team’s free throws for a total of 32 points. Myla Eastman finished with five points, Jessica Moore had four and Emersen Weir and Elaena Schiltz finished with two each.

As a team, the Bucs were 12-for-27 (44.4 percent) from 2-point range and 5-for-33 (15.2 percent) from outside the arc.

The Saints were 17-for-30 (56.7 percent) from inside the arc and 13-for-37 (35.1 percent) from outside the arc. They went to the charity stripe 18 times and made eight of their shots (44.4 percent).

St. James Area took advantage of their height to pull down 51 rebounds to only 35 for BEA.

The Bucs committed 23 turnovers compared to 16 for the Saints.

Eastman led BEA with 10 rebounds while Schiltz finished with nine and Grace Schavey had five. Schavey also came up with four steals on defense.

Pipestone Area 54,

BEA 45

When the Pipestone Area and Blue Earth Area girls met on the basketball court in Pipestone on Jan. 10, the Arrows cruised to a 75-50 victory over the Bucs.

The two teams met again on Thursday, Feb. 13, and although the Arrows still came out on top, it was a much closer contest with Pipestone Area defeating BEA 54-45.

BEA’s hustle and aggressive defense led to their first score of the contest when Lola Lundquist stole the ball from the Arrows and raced to the other end of the court for a layup.

Pipestone Area eventually got on the board and took a 6-4 lead before Myla Eastman sandwiched two 3-pointers around a pull-up jumper in the lane to catapult the Bucs into a 12-6 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

Pipestone Area put together a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 13-12 over BEA before a Lundquist free throw tied the game at 13-13 with 5:12 to play until halftime.

The Arrows outscored the Bucs 9-4 in the closing minutes of the opening stanza to hold a 22-17 lead at the intermission.

A steal and layup by Eastman five minutes into the second half brought the Bucs to within four points of the Arrows with Pipestone Area holding a 29-25 lead. However, the momentum swung back to the visitors and they built their lead to 15 points at 46-31 with just over eight minutes to play.

The Bucs kept battling and Jessica Moore’s basket off an offensive rebound pulled BEA to within seven points of Pipestone Area with 57 seconds left with the Arrows on top 52-45.

That would be as close as the Bucs would get and the Arrows went home with a 54-45 triumph.