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Vikings fall short against Cardinals, then bounce Bulldogs

Overtime games have not been kind to the Colfax boys as they lost their second one of the season, this time on the road to the Spring Valley Cardinals  62-50 Jan. 21. They turned things around however by producing a 20 point win at home against Boyceville 57-37 Jan. 24.

Spring Valley

They may have only gone into one overtime as opposed to six in the game against Fall Creek two weeks earlier, but those were a long four minutes for the Vikings as they were outscored 14-2 by the Cardinals in those extra minutes. The Cardinals scored eight of those points from the free throw line and the other six from a pair of three point shots by two different players.

After falling behind 13-9 at the end of the first quarter, the teams played even with eight points each in the second for a 21-17 Spring Valley lead at the half.

By outscoring the Cardinals 16-11 in the third stanza with seven points from Ethin Kiekhafer, three from both Grant Phillips and Sawyer DeMoe, two from Jarod Rudi and a point by Ben Kragness, Colfax held a slim 33-32 advantage heading into the final quarter. But eight Kiekhafer points on a pair of triples and two free tosses, and seven points by DeMoe on two deuces and a trio of freebies wasn’t enough to counter the 16 points put up by Spring Valley and the game ended up knotted at 48-48 at the end of regulation. DeMoe was the only Viking player to score in the overtime period.

“We turned the ball over too many times and Spring Valley did a good job of getting us out of rhythm,” Colfax coach Garrett Maas said. “We need to take care of the ball better.”

Colfax shot 23% from long range hitting 5 for 21, while Spring Valley finished 7 for 19 and 36%. The Vikings were 13 for 17 from the foul line and the Cardinals were 17 for 26. The teams were pretty close in the rebounding department with the Vikings grabbing 30 and the Cardinals 32 but Colfax led in the area no team wants to lead in as they turned the ball over 16 times and forced just 10 turnovers by Spring Valley.

SPRING VALLEY (62) Webster 6-8-10-22, S. Green 4-6-7-14, B. Becker 4-0-0-11, Jo. Helmer 2-1-4-7, Ja. Helmer 2-0-1-4, S. Borgerding 1-1-3-3, N. Kalmes 0-1-2-1

COLFAX (50) Kiekhafer 7-4-4-22, DeMoe 5-5-7-15, Phillips 2-1-2-6, Kragness 0-3-4-3, Rudi 1-0-0-2, Wait 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Kiekhafer 4, Becker 3, Webster 2, Jo. Helmer 2, Phillips 1

Boyceville

After defeating the Bulldogs by 18 points earlier in the season, the Vikings maintained their hold over them by taking an early lead and keeping it throughout the game. They fell behind 2-0 but a couple of close range shots from Rudi and a DeMoe bucket put them up 6-2. Kiekhafer dropped in a free throw and another basket by DeMoe came about as the Vikings took advantage in the paint against the much smaller Bulldog players. Phillips drove the baseline for a 11-6 lead but after Boyceville appeared to miss a final shot, they were bailed out by a foul and Tyler Draeger hit two free throws to cut the Colfax lead to 11-8 after the first quarter.

The Vikings exploded for 17 points in the second stanza and their solid defense didn’t allow the Bulldogs many decent looks at the hoop, forcing them to do a lot of passing and not a lot of shooting. Six straight points by DeMoe, Kiekhafer and Ben Kragness off his own steal put Colfax up 17-8, and after a Bulldog trey by Jake McIntyre,  Andy Larson countered it with his own, followed by another Kragness bucket from the top of the key, a DeMoe layup off another Colfax steal and Jeremiah Wait’s two free throws put their lead to 26-11. After losing the ball to the Bulldogs on a steal, Kiekhafer took it right back and went end to end for a short jumper at the buzzer for a 28-13 halftime lead.

DeMoe continued to have his way in the paint, added three more buckets and a free toss to help Colfax take a 43-25 advantage at the end of three quarters while Rudi tallied five of the team’s 14 points in the fourth quarter while Kedar Davis added his name to the scoring column with a couple of free throws for the eventual 20 point victory.

“This was probably our best game by far in closing out against their outside shooters,” Maas said. “We have been giving up way too many three point shots in the past few games and we emphasized shutting those down tonight. We had some players step up in the shooting department tonight and everyone who played scored. That makes us a much better team when we have balanced scoring,” he added.

DeMoe topped the Colfax scorers with 15 points with Rudi adding 12, Kiekhafer 11 and Kragness a season high eight. Colfax was 12 for 16 at the foul line while Boyceville was 10 for 16.

COLFAX (57) DeMoe 7-1-2-15, Rudi 5-1-2-12, Kiekhafer 3-4-5-11, Kragness 3-2-2-8, Phillips 2-0-1-4, Larson 1-0-0-3, Wait 0-2-2-2, Davis 0-2-2-2

BOYCEVILLE (37) B. Schutts 4-1-1-9, McIntyre 3-0-1-8, J. Kuhn 2-1-2-6, H. Anderson 2-0-0-6, J. Schulz 0-4-4-4,  Draeger 0-4-8-4

THREE POINTERS: Anderson 2, McIntyre 2, Rudi 1, Kiekhafer 1, Larson 1, Kuhn 1