Staff Photo by Jake Olson: Granada Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther boys basketball player Eli Jensen floats the basketball over Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons defender Nolan Habana during Monday night's contest in Granada.

GRANADA – Granada Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther’s Ethan Jaskulke lunged towards the baseline, barely getting his fingertips on the loose ball before flicking it behind his body in hopes of keeping the possession alive.

The ball landed into Reagan Emmert’s hands on the wing, who used an extra pass toward the top of the key for a waiting Eli Jensen, who calmly sank the outside shot to end a previous Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons five-point run and give his team a 44-37 cushion.

This Jaguar lead would never diminish over the final seven minutes of Monday night’s contest, as head coach Bryan Nowicki’s team held off a scrappy Knight squad to secure a 68-57 victory at the Granada Huntley East Chain High School gymnasium.

“A win is a win,” Nowicki said. “You have to win ugly sometimes, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Jensen had another strong performance for the Jaguars. The guard notched 18 of his 22 points in the second half, aiding GHEC/T/ML’s 50-point performance during the final 18-minute stretch.

He has now scored 20 points or more in four of his past six contests, including a 28-point outburst against Cleveland on Jan 29.

“I told him to attack the hoop and go up strong, get some fouls and go to the free throw line,” Nowicki said. “He’s always been a shooter, and I said to shoot it. You see some layups go in, some good shots, and the 3-ball will fall. …He was very aggressive [tonight], and we need that.”

Emmert and Brody Grathwohl were the two other double-figure scorers for GHEC/T/ML after putting up 13 and 11 points, respectively. The two combined for 13 rebounds, eight assists and six steals. Vaughn Thompson had eight points while Griffin Studer and Jaskulke each had six.

Nowicki will be the first to tell you his team’s first-half offensive performance wasn’t up to the standards he and his coaching staff hold. The Knights slowed the tempo of GHEC/T/ML by switching between 2-3 and 3-2 zone schemes, bringing each half-court possession to a halt as the Jaguars tried to get a good look.

AC/GE took its biggest lead of the night after two free throws from Jacob Dulitz and a transition layup from Darin Linn, making it 16-10 with under seven minutes left in the first half. The Knights forced six Jaguar turnovers before the halftime buzzer.

GHEC/T/ML capped off a mini 8-2 scoring run after Jensen tied things at 18 with a euro step layup on the left side of the hoop. But a top-of-the-key 3-pointer from Kaiden Farris and an assist to Weston Korman aided the Knights to a 23-18 lead at halftime.

The Jaguar comeback started on the defensive end. Nowicki decided to run a 2-3 zone against the AC/GE offense in hopes of slowing down their speedy guard play. Nowicki’s plan worked, as GHEC/T/ML held the Knights to five consecutive empty possessions to start the half.

“It slowed them down,” Nowicki said regarding his 2-3 zone. “We didn’t let them attack us and made them shoot from outside, which worked and slowed it [the game] down.”

Stops on defense gave GHEC/T/ML ample opportunity to crawl back into the contest. Putbacks from Thompson cut the deficit to one before Jensen gave his team a permanent advantage after consecutive layups edged GHEC/T/ML to a 28-25 advantage.

The offense continued to shine for Nowicki’s team in the second half, using dribble penetration to find open shooters on the outside or easy dump-off passes down low. Jensen capped off the nine-point scoring run with another authoritative drive to the basket that gave the Jaguars their largest lead of the night at 50-37 with under six minutes to go.

“I told them to attack the hoop, and everything else will happen. We finally did that in the second half,” Nowicki said. “We attacked and got to spread the floor on them a little.”

An and-one layup and two free throws from Jensen capped off his impressive performance that sealed the victory for GHEC/T/ML. The Jaguars have now won back-to-back games for the first time this season, aiming to gather some momentum before section play begins in a handful of weeks.

“We have to fight,” Nowicki said. “Our next three games are challenging: Windom Area, Jackson County Central and St. James Area. All AA schools, so we are going to have our work cut out for us.”

GHEC/T/ML (6-15) will take on Windom Area this Friday at 7:15 p.m.