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Boys lose at the buzzer to USC

By Staff | Feb 17, 2019

Braden Gudahl draws the foul while driving to the hoop against the St. Peter Saints in boys basketball action on Friday, Feb. 8.

It came down to the final shot in the boys basketball game between the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers and the United South Central Rebels played in Wells Monday, Feb. 11.

Trailing by two points with 3.1 seconds left in the game, the Rebels inbounded the ball. It ended up in the hands of Nolan Magnuson who nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to give USC the 59-58 non-conference victory.

The teams had taken turns holding the lead in the first half with the largest lead for either team being five points.

USC held a 22-19 advantage in the opening stanza before Caelan Sanders connected from beyond the arc to knot the score at 22-22 with 6:30 left in the opening half.

Both teams struggled to find the mark for the remainder of the half. Shot after shot bounced off the rim. AJ Kloos finally hit two free throws giving USC?a 24-22 lead.

The Bucs’ Cameron Anderson tied the score with a deep 2-pointer and then added another basket in the closing seconds of the half to give BEA a 26-24 half time lead.

Both teams continued their cold shooting as the second half began. The Bucs and the Rebels each missed their first three shots to open the final stanza.

However, the shots did start falling and the teams battled to a 36-36 tie with 8:30 remaining in the contest.

Carter Bell broke the tie with a 3-pointer but Kloos made two more free throws to cut the Buc’s lead to one point at 39-38.

Bell nailed another shot from beyond the arc and Anderson completed a traditional 3-point play to give the Bucs their biggest lead of the game at 45-38 with 6:50 to go.

It only took the Rebels a little over a minute to tie the game up again.

Magnuson converted his own traditional 3-point play and Sam Zebro followed with a baseline drive to pull the Rebels within two points of the Bucs. Kloos provided the bucket to tie the game at 45-45 with 5:25 showing on the clock.

BEA led 52-50 when Colby Klocek of the Rebels was fouled while making a 3-point shot. Klocek made the free throw to give USC a 54-52 lead with 1:13 left in the game.

Sanders answered with another 3-pointer with 37 seconds left to put BEA on top, 55-54.

USC called a time out with 31 seconds left. When play resumed it was Klocek who hit the basket to put USC back on top 56-55 with 19 seconds remaining.

It was now the Buc’s turn. Austin Thielfoldt swished a shot from behind the arc and was fouled with 11 seconds to go. The free throw was no good so the Bucs lead was 58-56.

Magnuson then nailed his buzzer-beater to the delight of the USC fans who rushed onto the floor to celebrate the win.

The loss dropped BEA’s overall record to 8-9. USC improved their overall record to 11-8.

St. Peter 64, BEA 49

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers boys basketball team fell to the St. Peter Saints in Big South Conference basketball action in Blue Earth on Friday, Feb. 8.

St. Peter scored 32 points in each half on their way to a 64-49 victory. The Bucs actually outscored the Saints in the second half but a cold-shooting first half left BEA in too big of a hole, and they could not recover.

Cameron Anderson’s 3-pointer, which was set up off of an inbounds play, gave the Bucs an 11-7 lead with just over 11 minutes to play in the first half.

Unfortunately, the Saints would outscore the Bucs 25-4 during the remainder of the opening stanza.

Besides their own scoring difficulties, the Bucs also had to deal with the Saint’s junior center, Wyatt Olson.

Olson, who is 6-feet-6, proved to be a tough match-up for the Bucs. Olson’s prowess around the basket resulted in the junior center tallying 29 points to lead all scorers.

BEA did play better in the second half.

The teams traded buckets to start the closing stanza. Austin Thielfoldt went to his left hand to bank in a short shot making the score 34-19 in favor of the Saints.

Each team made a free throw before Cameron Anderson’s traditional 3-point play closed the gap to 12 points at 35-23.

St. Peter responded and over the next few minutes built up their lead to 18 points at 45-27.

BEA fought back and outscored the Saints 10-4 over the next four minutes to again trail by 12 points at 49-37 with 6:45 remaining in the game.

The Saints held a 57-40 lead with 4:56 to go. A 3-pointer by Carter Bell and Anderson’s two free throws made the score 57-45. The Bucs would get within 11 points when Caelan Sanders scored with just under 1:30 remaining in the game, but time ran out for the Bucs and St. Peter took home the win.

Leading scorers for the Bucs were Anderson with 13 points, Bell with 12 and Sanders with seven.

BEA made 13 of 17 free throw attempts.

The loss dropped the Bucs record in the Big South Conference to 3-6 with an 8-8 record overall.