Colfax boys maul Macks, trample Toppers

It didn’t take long for the Chippewa Falls McDonell Central Macks to find out they didn’t have a prayer when they entered the Colfax gym last Tuesday night. By virtue of a 24-7 first quarter lead, the Vikings scored their highest point total of the year and finished with an 82-38 win at home Feb. 5, then traveled to Glenwood City two days later and again grabbed an early lead that eventually led to a 50-31 win over the Hilltoppers.

 McDonell Central

The Vikings scored 10 seconds into the game and with 10 seconds left in the game and seemingly everywhere in between. All 24 first quarter points came in the paint as Lane Olson came up with 12 of them including the first and last baskets of the quarter and three of his six buckets came from offensive rebounds He also added a massive block on the defensive end of the court. Ben Kragness  added points from an offensive rebound, Cody Zivcic scored on back to back plays including a spinning layup, Ethin Kiekhafer added a pair of baskets while Sawyer DeMoe hit a short jumper.

Colfax continued to dominate the paint and hit from the outside as well, as DeMoe opened the second stanza with another close range shot, Kiekhafer found the hoop from three point land and DeMoe scored again, via an Olson assist. Olson and Rudi added a deuce apiece before Kiekhafer canned another triple, Rudi dropped in another short range shot and Kiekhafer put in back to back buckets on a short jump shot and a layup coming from Zivcic’s steal and assist. Kragness zipped a pass underneath to DeMoe and the Vikings had a commanding 46-20 lead at the break.

DeMoe again started the quarter off with a shot in the lane just eight seconds in, Olson collected a pair of buckets and with Zivcic and Kiekhafer draining triples, the Vikings were up 60-23. Joe Wahl got into the scoring action with the first of his two buckets of the game and DeMoe ended the quarter with a pair of free tosses for a 68-31 lead.

Grant Phillips started the final quarter off with a put back, Jeremiah Wait scored on a drive then assisted Rudi on a deuce, and Rudi hit from behind the arc before Kragness hit from the top of the key for a 79-33 Colfax lead. Wait put the team over 80 points when he scored on another trip through the lane and Rudi finished the game off with a free throw.

“We came out with a lot of intensity and played well offensively, defensively and in transition,” Colfax coach Andy Meade said. “It was a very complete game for us against a pretty good team.We did a great job distributing the ball and getting it inside.”

Olson led four Vikings in double figures with a season high 18 points as Kiekhafer added 17, DeMoe had 14 and Rudi had his career high with 10. The referees were pretty quiet throughout the game, calling a total of 17 fouls with just six on the Vikings.

COLFAX (82) Olson 9-0-1-18, Kiekhafer 7-0-0-17, DeMoe 6-2-4-14, Rudi 4-1-2-10, Zivcic 4-0-0-9, Wait 2-0-1-4,Kragness 2-0-0-4, Phillips

MCDONELL CENTRAL (38) J. Watton 7-0-0-17, J. Davis 1-4-4-6, L. Schoch 3-0-0-6, C. Mondeau 1-1-2-4, K. Dorn 1-0-0-3, S. Bleckachek 1-0-2-2

THREE POINTERS: Kiekhafer 3, Watten 3, Rudi 1, Zivcic 1, Dorn 1, Mondeau 1

Glenwood City

Colfax jumped out to a 7-0 lead with three different players scoring from the paint including Zivcic, DeMoe and Olson who added a free toss. A triple by
Zivcic and a free throw, along with a trey from Kiekhafer put the lead at 14-5 and Zivcic ended the first quarter scoring by taking an in-bounds pass and putting it in the hoop with three seconds left.

The Colfax “D” put the hammer down and shut the Toppers out in the second stanza by crashing the boards and holding them to just one shot on most of their possessions. Meanwhile the Vikings put up 12 more points with Zivcic scoring the first two, the last two and two in the middle and Kiekhafer added a couple of free throws and a deuce to go with DeMoe’s bucket.

Olson canned his first trey of the season and added a slam-jam as he came up with 10 of the Viking’s 16 third quarter points and DeMoe added the other six for a 44-14 lead heading into the final quarter.

If there was a downside to the play of the Vikings, foul trouble may have been it as they whistled for 10 in the second half, allowing the Toppers to pick up some easy points. Glenwood went to the line six times in the final eight minutes and knocked down five of 10 freebies as they outscored Colfax 17-6 to make the final score a little closer.

Zivcic was high man for Colfax with 14 points, all in the first half and Olson ended with 13 and DeMoe added 12.

COLFAX (50) Zivcic 6-1-2-14, Olson 5-2-3-13, DeMoe 6-0-2-12, Kiekhafer 2-2-2-7, Wahl 1-0-0-2, Kragness 0-2-2-2

GLENWOOD CITY (31) J. Hierlmeier 4-3-5-12, R. Ross 3-0-0-7, N. Mrdutt 2-1-2-5, T. Johnson 1-2-2-4, M. Kadinger 1-1-2-3

THREE POINTERS: Zivcic 1, Olson 1, Kiekhafer 1, Hierlmeier 1, Ross 1