Colfax boys lose heartbreaker in sixth OT to Fall Creek

After a two week layoff, the Colfax boys’ basketball team was more than ready to get back on the court when they hosted a tough Fall Creek team Jan. 3. The Vikings knew they had an important stretch of games coming up, starting with the tenth ranked Crickets followed by games against Mondovi and Elk Mound.What they didn’t know was they would end up playing almost two games on one night when they went to six overtimes before losing 68-61 to the  Crickets.

“It was a great high school game but we just came out on the short end,” Colfax coach Garrett Maas said. “A bounce or a roll here or there around the rim or an inch or two on the defensive side and we win in regulation. But it just didn’t happen for us tonight.”

It looked like it may be the Ethin Kiekhafer show early on as he scored all 10 of the Vikings points in the first quarter, starting with two free throws, two triples and a deuce, but the Crickets just pecked away and came up with points of their own in between and it was 10-8 after a quarter of play.

It was a defensive battle throughout the game with very few fouls being called, making every attempt to score points by both teams pretty difficult. Grant Phillips came up with a bucket off a rebound but Jared Rudi was the only other Viking to score in the second stanza when he hit two shots in the lane with a free throw. But Fall Creek’s Braden Walbeck hit a three pointer and the Crickets held an 18-17 lead at the break.

After falling behind 23-19, Sawyer DeMoe went to work and came up with five straight points for the Vikings for a 24-23 lead. Fall Creek came back with two buckets but Kedar Davis picked a great time to score his first points of the season — a triple at that–for Colfax to knot the score at 27-27.With 2.2 seconds on the clock, Kiekhafer, who had been shut down since the first quarter, launched a bomb and a Fall Creek played managed to foul him as the buzzer sounded. Kiekhafer was just the man needed at the time as he stood by himself on the court and nailed all three foul shots for a 30-27 lead at the end of three quarters.

Those points seemed to give the Vikings a little boost as they came up with four quick points on two free tosses from Ben Kragness and a DeMoe shot from a Kiekhafer assist for a 34-27 lead.But as mentioned before, points were hard to find and both teams came up with several empty possessions in the next two minutes. Kiekhafer connected on a fade away jumper to keep the lead at seven at 36-29 and Jeremiah Wait hit the front end of a one and one twice, but that lead dwindled to 38-35 and with 1.1 left in the game, Walbeck let a shot go from way behind the arc and it found nothing but net to force a four minute overtime period.

“I though we had him defended very well but he made a fantastic shot,” Maas said.

The score went back and forth as DeMoe and Kiekhafer hit close range shots for a 42-42 tie and a Colfax turnover with a missed shot by the Crickets kept the score that way. DeMoe put Colfax back up to start the second overtime but they committed their seventh team foul with 1:07 left and Matt Anderson knotted it again with two freebies. Anderson added a layup to put Fall Creek back up and with five seconds left, Kiekhafer took a slick out of bounds pass from Rudi and slipped the ball in the hoop, and with another Fall Creek miss on a final shot, it was 46-46 for another overtime.

Players on both teams seemed to be a little tired as you would expect, resulting in several missed opportunities in the shooting department. Dakota Hopkins hit a free throw for Fall Creek but Kiekafer made two for a 48-47 lead with 23 seconds left.Walbeck added one of two from the line and  both teams had a chance to take the win but couldn’t manage to score before the buzzer went off again.

Knotted at 48-48 to start the fourth OT, the pace picked up a bit with the teams trading points again. DeMoe hit a pair of close up shots but the Crickets countered both times to get to 52-52 before Wait connected on two big free tosses for a two point lead. Anderson went through the lane for another bucket and DeMoe was pounded while attempting to shoot twice under the hoop and ended up getting called for a foul himself. Turner Steinke knocked down both free throws for a 56-54 Cricket lead and it was DeMoe’s time for some heroics as he hit the offensive boards hard and set the ball in the basket as the buzzer sounded, sending the game into the fifth overtime.

Walbeck hit yet another deuce but Wait, by far the smallest guy on the court, drove in between some tall trees and hit an underhand shot to get the score to 58-58. Walbeck committed his fifth foul on the play, sending him to the bench much to the pleasure of Colfax players and fans. Wait missed the ensuing free throw however, and the Crickets in turn missed several open shots in the final minute and it was to the sixth overtime we did go.

It appeared the Crickets had the final bout of energy as they scored eight straight points for a 66-58 lead with six coming from the foul line. DeMoe added a final bucket with 40 seconds left and a free toss from Kiekhafer ended the Colfax scoring on the long, long night.

“Both teams had a lot of chances to pull out the win,” Maas said. “I am proud of the way our guys played to the end. We learned a lot about ourselves and what we need to work on as we head into the biggest part of our season,” he added.

The one-two punch of Kiekhafer and DeMoe came up big again as Kiekhafer scored 22 points and DeMoe 21. Anderson led the Crickets with 28 and Walbeck added 24. Colfax finished 16 of 23 from the charity stripe while Fall Creek was 22 of 30.

FALL CREEK (68)
Anderson 9-8-9-28, Walbeck 7-8-9-24, Steinke 1-3-4-5, C. Folkers 2-0-0-4, L. Rubeck 1-1-2-3, I. McInnis 1-0-0-2,. Hopkins 0-2-4-2

COLFAX (61)
Kiekhafer 6-8-9-22, DeMoe 10-1-2-21, Wait 1-4-7-6, Rudi 2-1-3-5, Davis 1-0-0-3, Phillips 1-0-0-2, Kragness 0-2-2-2

THREE POINTERS:
Kiekhafer 2, Anderson 2, Walbeck 2, Davis 1