BLUE EARTH — After a foul-filled first half, St. Peter’s defense got under control and held Blue Earth Area to 10 second-half points.

The Saints took a 62-27 Big South Conference basketball win over the Bucs on the strength of their defense and a balanced offensive attack Friday night in Blue Earth.

St. Peter jumped out to a 17-5 lead eight minutes into the action, but BEA strung together a 11-point run, keeping the Saints off the scoreboard for the next four minutes.

Kiera Osmundson started the Bucs’ run with a trifecta from the right wing off an Arika Howard assist. Osmundson’s shot rolled around the rim three times before finally dropping through the net.

Howard then drove through the Saints’ defense on an inbounds play, reversing roles and creating a layup off an Osmundson assist.

Osmundson kept the run going with two free throws and a drive off a well-designed play for a layup. Osmundson started to drive, dished the ball out to Tea’ Armstrong on the wing, then cut through the defense, getting the pass back from Armstrong for 2.

Howard sank two free throws at the 6:39 mark to bring the Bucs within a point at 17-16.

St. Peter would hold BEA to 11 points through the final 24:39 of action.

St. Peter head coach Bob Southworth said the Saints’ defensive intensity and control picked up to lead the ensuing St. Peter charge.

“I wasn’t as happy with our performance in the first half, I didn’t think we were moving the ball around well enough and we were taking too early of shots in the offense,” Southworth said. “Defensively, we weren’t playing with our feet, we were playing with our hands and fouling way too much. In the second half, we really cleaned that up, we didn’t foul as much. We played with our feet, we worked the ball around and shot a way higher percentage in the second half.”

The Saints held the Bucs without a field goal the rest of the first half, with BEA scoring once on a Kaitlin Johnson free throw.

In the final six minutes before the intermission, St. Peter extended to a 12-point advantage. Morgan Kelly started the 13-1 run with a putback shot, then Josie Wiebusch sank the back end of two free throws.

Maddie Kamm grabbed a rebound then made the first of two free throws after she was fouled before Lilly Ruffin hit one of two from the line. Kamm turned a steal into a layup, Kelly hit a free throw, Sarah Conlon made a long-range 2 from the right corner and Kelly sank a layup off a post-spin move just before the first-half buzzer sounded.

Both teams faced foul trouble in the opening half, combining for 23 fouls, including each team having two starters with three first-half fouls, and 30 free throw attempts.

St. Peter stormed out of the break, scoring 13 points in the first five minutes, while holding BEA off the scoreboard until Johnson sank a layup off an Eloise Blair assist at the 10:54 mark.

Blair and Johnson then reversed roles when Blair sank a layup off a Johnson assist with 10:26 left.

Howard made a free throw and sank a cutter through the lane and McKenna Dutton swooshed a 3 from the right corner off an Armstrong assist to give BEA its 27 points.

Howard led the Bucs with 10 points off 2 of 5 shooting and 6 of 10 free throws to complement her team-high four rebounds, while Osmundson scored seven points on a 3 and two field goals. Armstrong dished out a BEA-leading three assists.

Conlon led the Saints with 12 points scored, while bringing down seven rebounds. Kelly put up nine points and brought down eight rebounds, while Rhyan Holmgren had nine points.

BEA made 8 of 26 shots from the field, including 2 of 4 from behind the 3-point arc, while making 9 of 16 free throws with eight coming in the first half.

St. Peter hit 21 of 49 total shots, including 6 of 19 from 3, and made 14 of 23 attempts from the charity stripe.

“I thought our effort was good,” Cue said. “A big part of the first half we played really well. We got flat and didn’t play well the last few minutes of the first half. They came out and picked up their defensive pressure and we kind of crumbled for a long time.”

The win marks St. Peter’s seventh in its past eight games and completes a regular-season sweep of BEA after the Saints took a 51-22 win over the Bucs on Dec. 10 in St. Peter.

BEA (2-14, 0-6 Big South) goes to Granada to face Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther/Truman for a 7:15 p.m. nonconference matchup Monday, while the Saints (13-4, 6-1 Big South) go to Belle Plaine.

St. Peter 29-33–62

B.E. Area 17-10–27

B.E. AREA (27)

Arika Howard 2-5 6-10 10, Kiera Osmundson 2-4 2-2 7, Eloise Blair 2-6 0-1 4, Kaitlin Johnson 1-6 1-2 3, McKenna Dutton 1-3 0-1 3, Tea’ Armstrong 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 8-26 9-16 27.

ST. PETER (62)

Sarah Conlon 4-12 3-4 12, Morgan Kelly 2-6 5-6 9, Rhyan Holmgren 3-7 2-4 9, Abby Haggenmiller 3-5 0-0 8, Josie Wiebusch 3-7 1-3 8, Maddie Kamm 3-4 1-2 7, Lilly Ruffin 2-3 2-4 6, Emma Jones 1-2 0-0 3, Amelia Carlson 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Remmert 0-1 0-0 0, Abby Maloney 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-49 14-23 62.

3-pointers: BEA 2-4; SP 6-19. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: BEA 15 (Howard 4, Dutton 3); SP 33 (Kelly 8, Conlon 7, Ruffin 5). Assists: BEA 8 (Armstrong 3); SP 10 (Kelly 3). Steals: BEA 3; SP 10 (Kamm 3).

West Hancock 55, North Union 35 — Chloe Loftstrom’s double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds wasn’t enough to power the Warriors past the Class 2A No. 2-ranked Eagles during Top of Iowa Conference basketball play Friday night in Britt, Iowa.

Rachel Leerar led the Eagles with 20 points, while Kennedy Kelly had 14 and Riley Hiscocks totalled 12.

North Union made 11 of 32 shots from 2-point range, 2 out of 10 from beyond the 3-pt arc and hit 7 of 14 attempts from the charity stripe.

North Union (9-5) travels to Spencer, Iowa, for a 7:30 p.m. matchup Monday. West Hancock (16-0) goes to Buffalo Center to face North Iowa at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 58, Martin County West 27 — The Knights coasted to a 31-point Valley Conference victory over the Mavericks on Friday night in Lake Crystal.

Emily Dunlop and Gabby Lange each scored six points to lead the Mavericks, while Dunlop grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Sam Meyer put up five points, while bringing down six boards and Marissa Whitehead pocketed a team-high seven steals.

The Mavericks made 10 of 36 shots from 2, 1 of 14 from 3-point distance and 4 of 9 from the free throw line.

Martin County West (7-7) travels to Tracy for a nonconference matchup with Tracy-Milroy-Balaton at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

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Boys Basketball

St. Peter 56, Blue Earth Area 55 — Ethan Volk sank both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with 2.7 seconds left to lift the Saints past the Bucs during Big South Conference action Friday night in St. Peter.

Austin Thielfoldt led Blue Earth Area with 15 points, while Cameron Anderson had nine points and six rebounds. Grant Strukel added seven points to the Bucs’ offense, while pocketing three steals to help the defense and Sam Keister and Zach Herrmann each scored six points and grabbed four rebounds.

Josh Johnson led the Saints with 18 points, Ethan Grant had 14 and Wyatt Olson scored 10.

BEA (6-6) plays host to Fairmont at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, while St. Peter (11-5) goes to Jordan.

Truman/Martin Luther/ Granada-Huntley-East Chain 69, Windom 68 — Cayden Fischer’s late basket put the Jaguars ahead 69-66 before the Eagles made a putback 2 as time experied during nonconference basketball action Friday in Windom.

Adam Heckman continued his torrid scoring pace with 29 points, while reaching a double-double with 13 rebounds to complement three blocked shots.

Matt Heckman added solid all-around numbers of 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Fischer totalled nine points and four assists.

Cael Jaskulke added seven points to the Jaguars’ winning ways, while Carter Spear scored six and dished out a team-high 12 assists and Owen Wolter totalled six points and three assists.

The Jaguars made 28 of 44 shots from 2-point range, hit 1 out of 11 tries from behind the arc and shot 10-for-19 from the charity stripe.

the Jaguars (13-4) play host to Martin County West at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in Granada.

West Hancock 65, North Union 47 — The Warriors made 15 of 31 shots from 2, but only 5 of 26 from 3 during Top of Iowa Conference action against the Eagles on Friday in West Hancock.

North Union also made 2 out of 8 attempts from the free throw line.

Noah Morphew led the Warriors with eight points, while Gage Madden totalled seven points and three assists. Robert Ortman totalled six points and four rebounds and Nick Schiltz also added six points.

North Union (1-13) plays host to Belmond-Klemme at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Armstrong.