Colfax boys split pair of conference games

Still reeling from a bad defeat by the Elk Mound team Feb. 6, the Colfax boys didn’t have much time to recover when they played a make up game against conference leading Durand two days later. The result was a 57-44 loss to the Panthers, but the two game losing streak ended with a 71-47 bruising over Boyceville a few days later. The Vikings are now 5-6 in conference play while the Bulldogs are 1-10.

Durand

Played in front of a sparse crowd, perhaps in part due to the extreme cold weather outside, it turned out not to be much warmer inside from a shooting perspective by the Vikings.

After Jacob Larson scored on a short jumper to tie it the game at 2-2, the Vikings came up empty on six possessions which included missing four open shots, a charging call and a turnover to allow the Panthers to go up 12-2.

Apparently, the referees were in no hurry to leave the nice warm gym as they slowed the pace down by calling Colfax for their seventh team foul with 11:10 left in the half and Durand for their seventh foul with 7:00 minutes left. Colfax fell behind 18-6 before Larson went to the hoop on a strong move for a deuce, but the Panthers added seven straight points on free throws and a transition layup.

Andrew Harmon connected from the lane, and Aliymu Davis dropped in a free throw to cut the deficit to 27-11. But the basket must have been moving because the Vikings mis-fired on six more shots and they ended the half down 32-11.

“We came out flat and couldn’t buy a bucket,” Colfax coach Garrett Maas said. “Durand did a good job keeping us off balance and kept us from driving to the rim.”

Things looked a little better in the second half when Davis drained a triple and Larson scored on a put back to get back to 34-16. Durand was dominating the boards, however, and continued to score at a steady pace, increasing their lead to 41-18 before Jarrod Rudi scored under the basket for the Vikings.

Brett Prince started to heat up with a triple then went to the free toss line for a free throw and ended up staying there a long time due to a technical foul on Durand. He knocked down 2 of 4 freebies and a minute later Davis came up with a swipe and a layup, with George Scharlau’s trey. But in between the Panthers scored off an offensive rebound and a free throw and it was 50-30 in their favor with just over six minutes left.

Prince canned two more free tosses and Alex Knudson nailed his first triple of the game to keep it at a 20 point deficit. The Vikings continued to score on a Larson free throw, an Isaac Lee put back, two more free tosses by Prince and a final trey from Lee to make the final score look more respectable.

Colfax finished 8 for 20 at the foul line while Durand was 7 for 16. Aliymu Davis led the Vikings with 11 points and Prince added 10.

“We will have to regroup before we play a Boyceville team that is much improved on Thursday,” Maas commented.

DURAND (57) N. Siebenaier 5-2-4-12, W. Berger 4-1-2-10, B. Weber 3-0-0-8, L. Polzer 4-0-0-8, D. Meixner 3-0-2-6, B. Schlosser 1-3-4-5, T. Bauer 1-0-0-3, R. Hansen 1-1-4-3, T. Baskin 1-0-0-2

COLFAX (44) Davis 4-1-4-11, Prince 2-5-9-10, Larson 3-1-3-7, Lee 2-1-2-6, Knudson 1-0-0-3, Scharlau 1-0-0-3, Rudi 1-0-0-2, Harmon 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Davis 2, Weber 2, Prince 1, Knudson 1, Lee 1, Scharlau 1, Bauer 1, Berger 1

Boyceville

Well, the Bulldogs may have improved somewhat from earlier in the season but not enough to make much of a game of it. With Maas going to a new starting lineup to shake things up a bit, things started a bit slow before Colfax took an 11-5 lead on a Prince drive, a Larson deuce, a triple from Lee, a nifty reverse layup by Larson and another drive through the lane by Prince.

After Harmon hit back to back shots in the paint and Aliymu Davis scored from close range, Colfax was up 24-13 and the lead kept increasing when the Vikings hit the offensive boards. Lee missed a triple but followed his shot, snagged the rebound and dished to Aliymu Davis who canned the trey. On the next trip down court, Lee drained his own triple to open up a 32-15 lead. Aliymu Davis snared a rebound and drove end to end for a bucket and the Vikings ended the half up 36-19 after Larson knocked down a short jumper.

“We needed to try something different with our lineup,” Maas said. “We wanted to push the ball and get into the paint to score points. We were making the extra pass and found open players who made the shots tonight,” he added.

Scharlau, who made his debut as a starter, hit a pair of free tosses to begin the second half, then added a deuce a minute later. Prince followed with his own two free throws and then pulled down a defensive rebound and went end to end for a layup, and with a free toss by Aliymu Davis and Larson, a trey from Kedar Davis and a Harmon deuce, Colfax had a huge lead at 51-23. Boyceville didn’t help themselves any when they were called for their tenth foul with 9:23 left in the game while the Vikings were whistled just once.

With a few minutes left, Alex Knudson knocked down a jumper in the paint then on the next trip down court nailed a trey for a 66-39 advantage. Harmon drove the lane for a bucket and the Viking’s final point came on Matthew Reisdorf’s first varsity point on a free throw.

Three players finished in double figures for Colfax with Harmon coming off the bench to lead with 15 points, while Lee had a career high 10 points and Aliymu Davis also had 10.

COLFAX (71) Harmon 7-1-3-15, A. Davis 3-3-4-10. Lee 4-0-0-10, Larson 4-1-2-9, Prince 3-2-2-8, K. Davis 2-1-3-7, Knudson 2-0-0-5, Scharlau 1-2-2-4, Rudi 1-0-0-2, Reisdorf 0-1-2-1

BOYCEVILLE (47) B. Boda 7-0-0-16, L. Knudtson 4-4-4-14, B. Hanestad 4-0-0-8, H. Anderson 2-0-0-6, M. Kahl 1-1-2-3

THREE POINTERS: Lee 2, K. Davis 2, Boda 2, Anderson 2, A. Davis 1, Knudson 1