Elk Mound boys and girls win double header over Colfax
ELK MOUND — When both the Colfax boys’ and girls’ basketball teams invaded the Elk Mound gym for a daytime double header February 6, it turned out to be a pretty good day for the Mounders, but not so good for the Vikings. For the second time this season, both Mounder teams defeated the Vikings, starting the day with a 72-52 win for the boys, followed by a 52-45 win for the girls.
Elk Mound-Colfax boys
The game marked the return of two players from the injured reserve list, Colfax’ Jarrod Rudi and Elk Mound’s Dane Lew. Colfax senior and four-year varsity player Jarrod Rudi missed the last nine games with an ankle injury, while Elk Mound’s leading scorer Dane Lew was out for several games with a knee problem.
Lew was back in the starting lineup and made his presence known in the first 20 seconds when he drilled the first of 16 three point shots for the Mounders. Lew’s 16 triples accounted for 48 of the Mounders’ points in the contest. (At this time, nobody knows if this is a school record or not).
After Lew’s long ball, he followed up with a deuce on an offensive rebound before the Viking’s Aliymu Davis drove the lane to make it 5-2 for the Mounders. Cole Tyman got into the three point action with his own for Elk Mound and Davis countered with another drive through the lane. Carter Pritchard scored for the Mounders on a fast break layup, and again Davis scored on a short jumper.
After Brandon Bohl canned a trey it was 13-6 for the Mounders and a Colin Svee free toss added to the lead. And it appeared nobody had an answer for Davis as he drove to the hoop for two more points before Bohl drained another trey to up the Mounders lead to 17-8.
Kedar Davis connected on a trey for the Vikings, but little did anyone know, those would be the only points the Vikings’ leading scorer would have in the game.
After several mis-firings from three point land, the Mounders found the range again on another Lew triple and another from Bohl and it was 23-11. Rudi pulled down an offensive rebound and assisted Brett Prince for a deuce, and in the next 30 seconds, nine points were scored including six by Ben Lambele on long range shots with one from the Viking’s George Scharalu in between.
After Issac Lee knocked down a free toss and a shot from the top of the key, Colfax was back to within 10 points, down 29-19 and they got even closer when Andrew Harmon drained a three ball. Lambele finished off the half with a pair of free tosses and the Mounders were up 31-22 at the intermission.
“We had another sluggish start and were letting them get too many good looks at the basket,” Colfax coach Garrett Maas said. “And when you let those guys have the chance, they are going to hit some threes. It’s really hard to make up points when they are shooting that well from long range and we are turning the ball over so much.”
After Svee stole the ball from the Vikings and scored on a layup to start the second half, Colfax finally got a wake up call and started to figure out the Mounders’ trapping zone defense.
Jacob Larson scored three times under the basket off some slick passes from his teammates to cut the Mounder lead to 34-28, but that lead went back up in a flash when Lambele and Bohl both canned a triple. Aliymu Davis drained one of his own but Lew scored on a drive for a 42-31 Mounder advantage.
The lead grew even more on a pair of Dylan Black freebies and another Lambele triple to make it 47-31 before Rudi scored his first points of the game from under the hoop.
Kedar Davis and Rudi were both called for a charge within 30 seconds of each other which took a lot of momentum away from the Vikings, especially after the Mounders had slowed down in the shooting department for a couple of minutes.
Larson finally broke through and scored from close up but his two pointer was countered by another Lambele three pointer. After Aliymu Davis knocked down two free tosses, Harmon added a trey from the corner to get Colfax closer, down 52-41. But Lambele hit the boards and scored on a put back to go back up 54-41.
The Vikings still had some fight left however, as Aliymu Davis canned a triple and Harmon connected on a short jumper to get them back to an eight point deficit. The hot hand of the Mounders came through with back-to-back treys from Tyman.
In between, Kedar Davis fouled out on yet another charging call and after Lew and Aliymu Davis exchanged scoring drives followed by Prince’s deuce it was 62-50 for the Mounders with a few minutes left. Lambele added a couple of free throws, Tyman scored in the paint then added his fourth trey of the game for a 69-50 advantage.
Prince finished off the Vikings’ scoring with two free tosses, and coming off the bench, Elk Mound senior Elliot Johnson brought the Elk Mound crowd to their feet by drilling his first and the Mounders’ 16th triple of the game.
“Well, we certainly shot well from behind the arc tonight,” Mounder coach Chris Hahn said. “We did a good job of finding the open player and making the shot. Every time they made a run at us, we came up with a big shot ourselves and our defense forced Colfax into some bad shots and took seven charges. I’m not sure if the 16 three pointers are a school record or not but it’s the most in a game I have coached since I have been here,” he added.
Four Mounders finished in double figures for the game, led by Lambele’s 21 points which included five treys and 4 of 4 free throws. Aliymu Davis led the Vikings with 19 points.
ELK MOUND (72) Lambele 6-4-4-21,Tyman 5-1-2-15, Bohl 5-0-0-14, Lew 5-0-0-12, Svee 1-1-2-3, Johnson 1-0-0-3, Pritchard 1-0-0-2, Black 0-2-2-2
COLFAX (52) A. Davis 8-1-1-19, Larson 5-0-0-10, Harmon 3-0-0-8, Prince 1-2-2-4, Lee 1-1-2-3, Scharlau 1-0-0-3, K. Davis 1-0-0-3, Rudi 1-0-0-2
THREE POINTERS: Lambele 5, Bohl 4, Tyman 4, Lew 2, A. Davis 2, Harmon 2, Scharlau 1, K. Davis 1, Johnson 1
Elk Mound-Colfax girls
The Elk Mound girls entered the contest sitting in first place in the conference race but were just a game ahead of Glenwood City. They were coming off a win over Boyceville two days earlier, while Colfax was also coming off a low scoring win against Spring Valley and were 8-3 in conference play.
For whatever reasons, this game started off as exciting as the old saying goes “watching paint dry” with both teams spending a lot of time running up and down the floor with very few results.
After Ally Heidorn put Colfax up 1-0 on a free throw, it was almost three minutes before the Mounders scored on a layup by Sarah Winchester off her own steal.
The Mounders used their swarming full court press to force Colfax out of any offensive rhythm much like they did the first go around with them. Elk Mound was struggling offensively themselves and missed several open shots from close range. Morgan Radtke finally knocked down a free toss for the Mounders and Emma Hurlburt countered with a close range shot for Colfax to make it 3-3. Allie Weber put the Mounders up 5-3 on a jumper from the top of the key. Elizabeth Fasbender scored on a drive, Winchester scored in the paint and a pair of McKenna McVey free tosses made it 12-3 for the Mounders.
The Vikings’ Hailey Durand-Christianson stopped the bleeding with a free throw but Radtke added her own which came off the seventh team foul by the Vikings with 7:53 left in the half.
Radtke added two more freebies but the Mounders committed their seventh foul at the 7:33 mark which sent Dempsey Fogarty to the line. She hit one of two and Radtke followed with a deuce for a 17-5 Mounder advantage.
Savannah Henricks knocked down a free throw for Colfax followed with a deuce but those points were offset again by Winchester’s deuce and Megan Krall’s free toss to make it 22-6 for the Mounders. That lead increased to 25-6 on another free toss from Krall and two more by Kami King.
With less than two minutes left in the half, it looked like the Vikings were going to be held to those six points in the half. But a short spurt with Megan Schleusner scoring on a short jumper was followed by Bryanna Buchanan’s triple that cut the Mounder lead to 25-11. A three point shot at the buzzer from King gave Elk Mound a 28-11 lead going into the intermission.
“We made too many mistakes with the ball early on and Elk Mound is too good of a team to do that against,” Colfax coach Joe Doucette said. “They come right at you and stay after you the whole game and if you are weak with the ball you are in big trouble.”
When McVey scored from the paint to put the Mounders up 30-11, it looked like the Mounders would go into cruise control, but things changed very fast in the next several minutes.
Heidorn hit a free toss for Colfax and King knocked down two for the Mounders, then Heidorn scored five points on a deuce and a triple. Fasbender countered with two free tosses for a 34-17 lead but several turnovers and missed shots by the Mounders kept them at that 34 point mark for a long time.
Meanwhile, the Vikings found their mojo and put a long run together, starting with Fogarty’s two free throws. Buchanan followed with a trey, Alyssa Dachel added her own long ball, Heidorn scored in the paint, then drove the baseline for another bucket. After another Buchanan triple from the corner, the Vikings were suddenly within two points down 34-32 with just over 11 minutes left.
But this Mounder team has been resilient this season, and it showed when Radtke broke the streak with a free throw. After a Viking turnover, straight shooter Winchester drained a triple seconds later for a 38-32 Mounder advantage.
Both teams missed the mark on three point attempts before Fasbender hit a free throw, Radtke scored in the lane and Hannah Cedarblade swiped the ball and scored on a layup and it was back to a 41-32 Mounder lead.
“This is Colfax and you can never be at ease when you play them,” Mounder coach Jordan Kongshaug said. “They have great athletes and are well coached. They made a run at us and we figured out how to stop it and take control again. That isn’t easy to do against Colfax but I was proud at how our players all stepped up and regained the lead”.
Hurlburt came back with two buckets from the lane to get Colfax closer again, down 43-36. The Mounders responded with McVey’s shot from close range. Hurlburt countered again before Fasbender connected on a pair of free tosses. Fogarty came up with a steal and a layup, then added a free throw to cut the Mounder lead to 47-41. After forcing an Elk Mound turnover, Heidorn found an opening in the lane for a bucket.
With 35 seconds left, Buchanan came up with a steal and a short jumper and the Vikings were back to within two points again, down 47-45.
The Mounders were not going to let this one slip away however, as King nailed two free throws. After the Vikings missed a three point attempt, Fasbender knocked down another free toss. Colfax turned the ball over with 10 seconds left and Radtke finished off the seven point win with her own two free throws.
“Making those free throws at the end was huge for us,” Kongshaug said. “We need to be able to do that as we head into the final part of our season,” he added.
Balanced scoring was a key for the Mounders as it has been all year with Radtke leading the way with 12 points. Heidorn was tops for the Vikings with 15 points. Elk Mound was 24 of 33 from the foul stripe while Colfax was 8 for 18.
ELK MOUND (52) Radtke 2-7-10-12, Winchester 4-0-0-9, King 1-6-6-9, McVey 3-2-2-8, Fasbender 1-6-9-7, Weber 1-1-2-3, Cedarblade 1-0-0-2. Krall 0-2-4-2
COLFAX (45) Heidorn 6-2-8-15, Buchanan 4-0-0-11, Hurlburt 4-0-0-8, Fogarty 1-4-6-6, Dachel 1-0-0-3, Henricks 0-1-2-1, Durand-Christianson 0-1-2-1
THREE POINTERS: Buchanan 3, Heidorn 1, Dachel 1, Winchester 1, King 1
Elk Mound 61-Boyceville 53
After defeating Boyceville by 22 points earlier in the season, the Mounder girls came across a hot shooting Bulldog team this time around and had to hit some free throws late in the game to hold on for the eight point win.
Winchester helped give the Mounders a 27-23 halftime lead with a couple of treys and a deuce sandwiched in between. McVey was hitting in the paint with three deuces and a free toss and King added five points on a triple and a deuce.
McVey was unstoppable from close range in the second half when she scored on six shots and two free tosses. King and Fasbender added eight points each and Radtke four on a pair of deuces as they outscored the Bulldogs just 34-30 to finish with the win.
“Boyceville shot very well and hit six- three pointers,” Kongshaug said. “Our defensive intensity was not where it should have been.”
McVey led all scorers with 21 points and King added 13. Elk Mound knocked down 11 of 14 free throws while the Bulldogs were 11 of 15.
ELK MOUND (61) McVey 9-3-4-21, King 5-2-2-13, Fasbender 2-6-6-10, Winchester 3-0-0-8, Radtke 3-0-0-6, Weber 1-0-0-3
BOYCEVILLE (53) M. Riek 6-4-6-15, M. Lagerstrom 5-0-0-14, M. Kuhn 2-3-4-8, J. Beyrer 2-0-0-7, C. Malean 1-5-5-6, E. Harnisch 1-0-0-2
THREE POINTERS: Lagerstrom 4, Winchester 2, Weber 1, King 1, Beyrer 1, Kuhn 1