Colfax girls swamp Spring Valley, bruise Boyceville

After a weeklong break, the Lady Vikings returned to the gym floor, traveling to Spring Valley and smothering the Cardinals 57-22 Dec. 4, then stayed home to face their old nemesis, the Boyceville Bulldogs and battled for a 47-35 win Dec. 7.

Spring Valley

It’s not often you see as lop sided of a score as this one as the Vikings took a 20-0 lead after the first quarter and 39-3 lead at the half. Seven players scored for Colfax in the first quarter alone as Ryleigh Prochnow led the way with eight points coming from a pair of triples and a deuce, while Alexis Rudi connected from behind the arc once and Braanna Steen also had three points on a bucket and free toss to help the cause. Mallie Doucette picked up five points in the second stanza to go with a three ball from Dannielle Dachel, a bucket apiece from Rudi, Taylor Shipman, Steen and Brittany Rothbauer with Hannah Hover hitting two free tosses and Chey Olson collecting one.

Kenna Breckner came up with five third quarter points on a deuce and a triple as the Vikings ended the quarter up 52-12 and McKayla Harmon and Rothbauer each hit a bucket to go with a free throw from Katlin Sauerwein to finish off the game.

“Prochnow had a great first quarter to really get us going,” coach Joe Doucette said.”After the fast start, we were able to play a lot of people. We relaxed too much in the second half but we had a lot of younger kids in getting varsity experience. We have a big stretch of games against good teams coming up and although we are 2-0, we have not really been tested yet.”

14 Colfax players saw playing time and 12 of them put their names in the scorebook with Prochnow collecting 11 points to lead the way. Completing free throws was not an easy task for either team as the Vikings were just 12 of 23 while the Cardinals were four of 16.

COLFAX (57) Prochnow 4-1-2-11, Doucette 3-1-2-7, Breckner 2-1-4-6, Rothbauer 3-0-0-6, Rudi 2-0-1-5, Shipman 2-1-1-5, Steen 2-1-1-5, Hover 0-4-6-4, Dachel 1-0-0-3, Olson 0-2-4-2, Harmon 1-0-0-2, Sauerwein 0-1-2-1

SPRING VALLEY (22) E. Boisen 4-0-0-10, T. Leach 1-0-0-2, C. Quinn 1-0-0-2, E. Brorson 1-0-2-2, C. Brorson 1-0-0-2, T. O’Keefe 0-2-4-2, N. Schlegel 0-1-2-1, E. Hofacker 0-1-6-1

THREE POINTERS: Prochnow 2, Boisen 2, Rudi 1, Breckner 1, Dachel 1

Boyceville

If anyone was expecting an offensive barrage by both teams, they were a little disappointed in this game since neither team was very successful finding the bottom of the net very often throughout the game. There were probably more turnovers than points by both the Vikings and Bulldogs in the first half, in part by the pressuring defense by Colfax and plenty of missed shots by both teams.

It took almost two minutes before Colfax put their first points up on a Prochnow bucket and almost three minutes later, the Bulldogs hit a free throw for their first point. Hover and Alexa Peterson then traded triples and Hover came up with an old fashioned three point play with a basket and free throw and with a Rudi free toss, Colfax held a 9-5 lead after the first quarter.

Colfax picked up the pace on the offensive side as Doucette canned a pair of three balls with a Prochnow bucket in the middle, and with two free throws by Steen and two by Doucette, Colfax held a 21-8 lead. Rothbauer assisted Doucette under the hoop for two more and the defense was doing their job as they held the Bulldogs to seven points, five by April Lake, and took a 23-12 lead at the half.

Doucette and Steen both connected on shots from downtown to go with a couple of shots from the paint by Prochnow and one from Olson, while the Bulldogs came up with just five points in the third quarter and the Vikings extended their lead to 35-17 heading into the final eight minutes.

But a team coached by Jolene Bird has never been known to quit and by outscoring Colfax 18-12, and the Vikings committing their seventh team foul with their aggressive defense, the Colfax  lead was cut to 10 points with just over a minute left. They controlled the ball the rest of the game however, while Rudi dropped in a couple of freebies to end the game.

Although coach Doucette was happy with the win, he wasn’t real pleased with the overall team effort against the Bulldogs.

“We really had only 3-4 kids come out to play tonight,” he said. “We looked a little timid and we need to have our bench players come out and be more aggressive. Our shooting percentage couldn’t have been too high tonight and we gave the ball away way too many times. But Boyceville always plays us tough so it was a pretty typical game against them.”

Doucette and Prochnow combined for 30 of the Viking’s points and the Colfax defense did not allow any Bulldogs to reach double digits in the scoring column. Hover held Boyceville’s leading scorer Abbey Bird to just two points in the game.

BOYCEVILLE (35)  Lake 3-1-2-7, K. Franseen 2-2-4-6, B. Blaser 1-3-4-5, M. Kegen 2-1-3-5, K. Hellmann 3-0-0-5, A. Peterson 1-0-0-3, Bird 1-0-2-2, K. Merten 1-0-0-2

COLFAX (47) Doucette 6-2-2-17, Prochnow 6-0-0-13, Hover 2-1-1-6, Rudi 0-3-6-3, Olson 1-0-1-2

THREE POINTERS: Doucette 3, Hover 1, Prochnow 1, Steen 1, Peterson 1, Hellmann 1