A perfect start for BP

Blooming Prairie basketball is here to stay as a perennial Gopher Conference title contender and looks primed for another breakout season after starting the year 7-0.

The Awesome Blossoms have been a terror for opposing teams on both sides of the ball, but it’s the team’s mentality that might be the most intimidating part of their game.

“I think if I had to describe our style of play in a word it would be ‘mean,’” said Blooming Prairie point guard Gabe Staloch. “All the guys that are on the court, we might be undersized, but we can jump and we will do anything to get the board and put it back in the hoop.”

That type of mindset is something that Blooming Prairie Head Coach Cam Rutledge loves about his team.

“It’s just how they’re built. It’s what we want to instill as coaches, but it’s a lot easier when they have that mindset on their own going into the game. It’s how we want to play this year. We want to play full-court defense and pressure the ball. Then on offense, we want to share the ball and run the court quickly. It’s easier when the guys always have that mentality rather than having to ask for that,” said Rutledge.

The team’s offense has flourished to kick off 2025-26 and is averaging 77.7 points per game.

Blooming Prairie’s offense continues to operate under the control of Staloch at the point guard position, but the junior’s role has changed significantly this year.

After being the team’s second-highest scorer in 2024-25 by averaging 16.6 points per game, Staloch has broken out to average 26.4 this season.

A major contributor to Blooming Prairie’s high point totals has been the team’s vicious offensive rebounding.

The tenacity of Kingston Lee, Bradley Boyd, Jared Lee and Staloch set the tone for the team, but there is not a single player on the Awesome Blossoms’ roster who is willing to be beat out for a rebound.

In a game against Randolph last week, Blooming Prairie poured the points on against the Rockets by creating second-, third- and even fourth-chance opportunities thanks to its offensive rebounding.

Kick-out shots to the perimeter and hard drives to the rim accounted for the vast majority of the team’s points and put Randolph in a bind early as the Awesome Blossoms led 42-35 at halftime.

Down the stretch, the Rockets learned a hard lesson that keeping up with Blooming Prairie offensively is a near impossibility.

Randolph managed to score 37 points in the second half, but the team was nowhere near catching up to Blooming Prairie’s 43.

The result was a decisive 13-point win for the visiting Awesome Blossoms.

Wildly enough, the 13-point win was actually the team’s second lowest scoring margin in a win this season.

Outside of a nine-point 66-57 win over Fillmore Central, Blooming Prairie is averaging beating opponents by 22.7 points on a nightly basis.

Blooming Prairie will look to keep capitalizing on its momentum when the team travels to Grand Meadow next for the Holiday Classic.

The team will square off against LeRoy-Ostrander on Monday, Dec. 29 at 5 p.m. before facing Grand Meadow on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 6:30 p.m.