It was a rival game in Blaine’s field house on Tuesday night, when the Bengals hosted the Andover Huskies in “The Battle for the Arm.”  After winning 64-52, the Huskies were the ones ending up with the joy of hoisting the mannequin arm, painted half Blaine colors, and half Andover colors. The Arm is now becoming an unofficial tradition among fans of Blaine and Andover sports. Whoever wins the game, keeps The Arm until two of the schools’ varsity squads match up again.

As for the basketball game, it didn’t go well for the Bengals.  Andover got great production from their guards, especially left handed Connor Wilkie(11), who drained a handful of jump shots.

Credit is due to Blaine for their resilience, because they trailed by as much as 15 points in the second half, but carved that Andover lead to just four points with 6 minutes remaining. Jerome Egbujor(12) came off the bench and gave Blaine a big spark, which Bengal fans are accustomed to seeing. Egbujor had 13 points and 6 rebounds, both team highs.

Blaine Matt Barthels(11) had 12 points, 5 boards and exhibited strong defense with three steals.  Barthels fouled out of the game late in the second half.

Captain, and starting point guard Joe Robel(12) also fouled out in the second half.  Blaine was called for 27 defensive fouls in a game where the officials were obviously unafraid to blow their whistles.

Blaine drops to a 5-5 record, and Andover improves to 3-7.

Next up for the Bengals is going to be a very challenging away game against Park Center. The Pirates are 11-1 and are ranked #2 in the state of Minnesota.

* All player and team stats are unofficial recordings