Colfax boys stung by Cadott Hornets, but claim share of conference title after win over E-PC Wolves

In a warm up game before they traveled to Plum City for the conference championship game against Elmwood-Plum City, the Colfax boys had one of their poorest performances of the season defensively and lost 76-58 at Cadott Monday, February 23. But they erased that game from their heads and bounced back three days later with one of their best defensive games when it counted, taking a 43-37 win over the Wolves, resulting in a tie with them for the Dunn-St. Croix Conference title.

Cadott

The good news was the Vikings finished with their highest point total of the season. The bad news was they gave up the most points of the season as three Hornet players all exceeded their scoring average and combined for 62 of their points.

Playing without starting point guard Jeremiah Wait who was home with a flu bug that has hit the area as of late, Colfax struggled to get their offense in sync. It didn’t help when Cadott, who were 7-12 overall,  knocked down 12 triples in the game and went 14 of 18 at the foul line. In a high scoring first quarter, the Vikings fell behind 23-19 as Sawyer DeMoe was in a zone, hitting six buckets from close range while Jarrod Rudi, Ben Kragness and Kedar Davis all hit a deuce with Davis adding a free throw,

Both Kedar and Aliymu Davis connected from behind the arc to help keep the game close as the Vikings went into the break down 36-31. The Hornets began pulling away in the third stanza, adding 16 points and holding Colfax to only 10 which included a pair of treys from Kedar Davis and a couple of Rudi deuces. Down by 11 to start the fourth, several Vikings gained some valuable varsity experience and made the most of it as Andrew Harmon and Isaac Lee both connected from downtown while Brett Prince scored from the paint to go with Kedar Davis’ fourth triple and two free tosses, along with deuces by Rudi and DeMoe. Cadott was responding quite well however, as they came up with 22 points with 14 coming from Ezra Michael who finished with 25 for the game after averaging 12 coming into the contest.

“We had too many defensive breakdowns to win a game like this,” coach Garrett Maas said.

Kedar Davis led the Vikings with 17 points while DeMoe added 16 and Rudi 12.

CADOTT (76) Michael 9-4-5-25, B. Kyes 6-4-6-19, B. McChesney 6-3-3-18, T. Kaeden 4-2-2-13, Q. Sikora 0-1-2-1

COLFAX (58) K. Davis 5-3-3-17, DeMoe 8-0-0-16, Rudi 6-0-0-12, A. Davis 1-0-0-3, Harmon 1-0-0-3, Lee 1-0-0-3, Prince 1-0-0-2, Kragness 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: K. Davis 4, NcChesney 3, Michael 3, Kaedon 3, Kyes 3, Lee 1, Harmon 1,A. Davis 1

Elmwood-Plum City 

Everyone knew the situation before the game started in the Plum City gym. E-PC was one game ahead of the Vikings in the D-SC standings, which included a one point win over them earlier in the season. If the Wolves win, they win the title outright, if the Vikings win, the teams share the title. It was senior night for E-PC and with 14 of them on the team, you would think their depth and experience would be their strength. But only seven players saw any court time for coach Chris Segerstrom in this game which may have helped the Vikings wear them down in the final quarter.

Colfax led 15-6 after the first quarter after Kedar Davis canned a triple and a deuce, DeMoe and Kragness both hit a couple of shots in the paint and Wait added another close range shot. The three point circle was the place to be in the second stanza as Brett Prince, Wait and Kedar Davis all connected from behind it and Davis added another deuce. E-PC scored seven points, four of them from the foul line and Colfax held a 26-13 advantage at the break.

Neither team was burning up the nets but both kept plugging away with the Wolves outscoring the Vikings 13-8 in the third quarter as Nash Gilles collected nine of those points for E-PC. Colfax still held a lead at 34-26 as the game went into the final quarter, however.

DeMoe scored the only field goal for the Vikings in the fourth quarter and the game could have been put away if Colfax had hit some free throws. They were just seven for 16 in the quarter and E-PC had three different players hit from three point land to keep things interesting. Colfax was up 38-34 with 1:43 to go and managed to play steady enough on both sides of the court to hang on for the six point win.

“We played a great defensive game with Aliymu Davis having his best game of his career,” coach Maas said. “We limited E-PCs two best shooters (Levi Wolf and Alex Boyer) to just five points each. It may have been senior night for the Wolves but our seniors were not going to let us lose this game. Sawyer and Ben hit some big shots and Jeremiah was a tremendous leader on the court for us,” he added.

DeMoe and Kedar Davis tied for scoring honors for the Vikings with 13 points each and Gilles finished with 56% of the Wolves points with 21. Colfax was nine for 21 at the charity stripe and E-PC was eight of 13.

The Vikings begin regional competition this Tuesday at home against Spring Valley. A win would send them back to play E-PC, this time in Elmwood.

COLFAX (43) DeMoe 5-3-5-13, K. Davis 4-3-7-13, Kragness 3-1-2-7, Wait 2-0-2-5, Prince 1-0-0-3, Rudi 0-2-4-2

ELMWOOD/PLUM CITY (37) Gilles 6-7-10-21,  Wolf 2-0-1-5,  Boyer 2-0-0-5, A. Coss 1-1-2-4

THREE POINTERS: K. Davis 2, Gilles 2, Prince 1, Wait 1, Wolf 1, Boyer 1, Coss 1