Colfax girls pass big test in win over Ladysmith

Traveling north on a cold, windy Saturday night, the Colfax girls’ basketball team used their aggressive defense and inside game on offense to take a 38-34 win over Ladysmith Jan. 19.

The Lumberjills are ranked anywhere from fifth to seventh in Division 3, depending on which poll you look at while the Vikings are ranked fourth through sixth in Division 4 in those same polls. The game was close as expected throughout, and after the Vikings jumped out to a 7-0 lead and 11-8 first quarter lead in part from six points by Braanna Steen and four from Mallie Doucette, Ladysmith got hot from long range however, connecting on five triples in the first half. Colfax held a 21-17 lead at the intermission but were outscored 7-4 in the third quarter as Ladysmith’s Jade Effertz scored all of her team’s points.

The Vikings were clinging to a one point lead at 25-24 after three quarters of play before they took control of the paint in the fourth quarter. Steen hit a pair of shots and went 3 for 4 at the foul line while Ryleigh Prochnow hit 2 of 3 freebies.  Doucette and Hannah Hover both hit a deuce and the Vikings defense held Ladysmith to 10 points including just one trey by Effertz to hang on for the tough win.

“Ladysmith is very fundamentally solid,” Colfax coach Joe Doucette said after the big win. “Even though they made seven three pointers, I thought we defended well and tried hard. We weren’t always great offensively but our defense and ability to rebound played a big part in the win.”

In the lowest scoring performance of the year for Colfax, Steen scored over half of her team’s points with 20 as she was eight for nine from the field with one trey and collected six rebounds. Doucette added 10 points on a rare night without a triple or a free throw, Prochnow picked up six rebounds and Hover led the team with five assists. The team went 6 for 10 at the charity stripe while the Jills, who were averaging 52 points a game, were 3 for 7 from the line.

The junior varsity team also came home with a victory, 38-17 to bring their record to 12-2 on the year.

COLFAX (38)  Steen 8-3-4-20, Doucette 5-0-0-10, Hover 2-0-0-5, Prochnow 0-2-3-2, D. Dachelle 0-1-3-1

LADYSMITH (34) Effertz 5-0-3-13, B. Zuck 3-0-0-8, H. Seifert 3-1-2-4, M. Stoll 1-0-0-3, E. Molstad 1-0-0-2, J. Hamilton 1-0-0-2, K. Cody 0-2-2-2

THREE POINTERS: Effertz 3, Zuck 2, Hover 1, Steen 1, Seifert 1, Stoll 1