The Blooming Prairie boys basketball team couldn’t hang on against No. 7 ranked United South Central (6-0 overall, 2-0 Gopher) in a 61-57 loss on the road Friday.

The Awesome Blossoms led by eight points halfway through the second half, but foul trouble caught up to them.

“In spite of the loss, there are definitely some things we can take from this game,” BP head coach John Bruns said. “The importance of ball security again was a bit of an issue for us as we had 19 turnovers. If we keep that at 12 we probably win the game. Even with that, we went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the conference and state in class A on the road and gave ourselves opportunities to beat them.”

John Rumpza had 22 points and 13 rebounds for BP (5-4 overall, 1-3 Gopher).

BP 29 28 — 61

USC 28 33 — 57

BP scoring: John Rumpza, 22; Mitchell Jones, 11; Jake Decker, 9; Scott Romeo, 8; Jon Hatch, 5; Dawson Heuer, 2; field goals: 43 percent (18-for-41); 3-pointers: 22 percent (2-for-9); free throws: 85 percent (18-for-21); rebounds: 33 (Rumpza, 13); turnovers: 19