Boyceville Bulldog boys drop games to Colfax Vikings, Elk Mound Mounders
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WITH TEAMMATE Cade Klefstad (#34) blocking out one Elk Mound defender, Bulldogs’ senior guard Brendan Sempf jumped past another to take a shot at the basketball during a home game versus the Mounders last Friday, January 24. Boyceville lost the conference contest 61-30. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
It was another tough week of losses for the Boyceville boys’ basketball team this past week.
On Tuesday, January 21st, the Bulldogs traveled to Colfax where they took on the first-place Vikings and lost 48-62. Then, on Thursday, January 23, Boyceville hosted the Mounders of Elk Mound and were beaten 30-61.
The Bulldogs (1-6, 1-10) played Prairie Farm on Monday, January 27th and will be at Plum City on Thursday for a game against the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves. They return to Boyceville next Tuesday, February 4 to host Mondovi.
Colfax
According to Bulldogs’ head coach Colby Dotseth, Boyceville started the Colfax game out slow and trailed the Vikings for a good portion of the first ten minutes of the game by a consistent ten points.
The Bulldogs were then able to make a run and cut into home team’s lead. However, with less than a minute to go, the Vikings had a huge momentum swing.
The Bulldogs went to the free throw line, down by six with 38 seconds on the clock and failed to sink a bucket. The Vikings then took the ball down court and converted for two. A few seconds later, the Bulldogs turned the ball over and the Vikings got to the free throw line where they found success with both of their shots.
The Bulldogs went into the locker room down by ten (22-32) instead of a possible four points. Which was a huge swing.
In the second half, the Vikings made a run right away and the Bulldogs were soon down 24 points and then got into foul trouble which didn’t help matters.
Dotseth gave his boys credit though saying that, “[they] didn’t fold and really played with great energy in the second half and made a big run in the second half and we were able to cut it down to eight points, but then we just never were able to get closer than that.”
Dotseth concluded with praise for many of his players.
“Logan Knudtson continues to do a nice job getting to the rim and he is becoming a more consistent scorer for us with 20 points to lead the team. I thought Cade Klefstad played his best game of the year for us especially on the defensive end, he gave great effort and really defended well.”
“Also we got some great support from our bench which we have been lacking in games. Kole Wruck came in and gave some great energy on the defensive end and knocked down a couple of open looks for us at key moments in the game. Trevor Hollister really came in and played well crashing the boards and posting up down low. Brendan Hazelton came off the bench and played very well on defense and did a great job of playing within his role. Also John Klefstad came off the bench and helped us tremendously on the defensive end with limiting 2nd shot opportunities.”
“The underclassmen gave us great minutes and hopefully that will be a trend that continues. The boys proved to themselves that they can play with some of the top competition in the conference as Colfax was a top two team in the conference standings to this point. So we will look to build off that confidence and keep competing.”
Boyceville (48)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 2-0-4-6, B. Sempf 2-0-3-5, Knudtson 7-4-4-20, Hazelton 0-0-1-0, Wruck 2-0-1-5, Larson 1-0-0-2, J. Klefstad 1-0-0-2, C. Klefstad 1-0-2-2, Hollister 3-0-1-6. Total 19-4-16-48.
Colfax (62)
FG-FT-F-T: Rindy 2-0-0-4, Seehaver 5-0-3-12, N. Albricht 1-2-1-, Hallquist 0-0-1-0, Hydukowvich 9-4-1-22, Heidorn 2-4-1-8, Rebak 1-2-0-4, Gibson 3-0-3-8. Total 23-12-12-62.
Boyceville………………………………22 26 – 48
Colfax……………………………………..32 30 – 62
3-point goals: Boyceville: Retz 2, B. Sempf, Knudtson 2, Wruck. Colfax: Seehaver 2, Gibson 2.
Elk Mound
It was a very physical game when the Mounders came to town last Friday with nearly 20 fouls for each team being whistled during the game.
Besides missing some shots, it was the turnovers that really seemed to get in the way of any Bulldog success.
The game started with the Mounders taking an early 5-0 lead before Cade Klefstad sank a short baseline jumper for two.
It seemed as though every time the Bulldogs scored a basket in the first half the Mounders countered with four or five points due in part to the turnovers from the Bulldogs.
The Mounders were running a full-court press, which caused more turnovers from the Dawgs which the Mounders took advantage of. The Bulldogs also lacked rebounders on offense.
With just under six minutes left in the first half and trailing by ten (14-24), the Bulldogs found themselves at the line shooting bonuses three times in a row due to all the pushing and shoving. However, they failed to capitalize and came up nil. For the first half, Boyceville shot only 40% from the line.
The Bulldogs headed to the locker room behind by thirteen points, 18-31.
At the start of the second half, there were turnovers and missed shots from both sides.
The Bulldogs were able to beat the press only to turn the ball over usually with a bad pass. As a result, there was very little scoring at the beginning of the half. During the first five minutes, the Mounders put up four points to the Bulldogs three.
As play continued, the Bulldogs just couldn’t seem to get anything going. The Mounders would score five points, the Bulldogs two; Mounders six, Bulldogs two and the pattern continued to the end of the game.
At the end, the Bulldogs basically gave up. The Mounders had control of the ball for the last thirty seconds of the game and just stood there dribbling to run out the clock. The Bulldogs basically watched and didn’t even try to take it away.
One bright spot in the game was Cade Klefstad who blocked several shots during the game and his brother John, who had at least one block.
Brendan Sempf was the only Bulldog to hit double digits and led the team with ten points.
After the game, a dejected Coach Dotseth stated that they struggled right away against the Mounders 1-3-1 defense. He said that the boys have struggled with this previously against other teams.
Adding to their offensive woes, Dotseth touched on their lazy passes and playing carelessly that caused them to turn the ball over. Defensively, Dotseth felt that they did a pretty good job limiting Elk Mound to one shot most of the time with good boards on defense.
However, he sadly remarked, “In the second half I feel like we quit on each other for the first time this year, it was tough.”
Not one to give up, he continues to look towards the future!
“We need to keep working, hopefully we can make some adjustments and come out here in the second half of the season and see what we can do.”
Boyceville (30)
FG-FT-F-T: Retz 1-0-0-2, B. Sempf 3-2-1-10, McRoberts 0-0-1-0, C. Sempf 3-0-2-6, Knudtson 1-2-1-4, Hazelton 0-0-0-0, Wendland 0-0-1-0, Wruck 0-1-2-1, Nye 0-0-0-0, Larson 1-0-2-3, J. Klefstad 0-0-2-0, C. Klefstad 2-0-4-4. Total 11-5-19-30.
Elk Mound (61)
FG-FT-F-T: Bohl 6-0-1-16, Heath 3-3-4-11, Lew 3-1-4-7, Levra 0-0-0-0, Steinhorst 3-3-2-10, Bartig 0-0-1-0, Hanson 3-3-2-9, Meyer 0-0-2-0, Jenson 1-0-2-3, Deling 2-1-2-5. Total 21-11-18-61.
Boyceville……………………………….18 12 – 30
Elk Mound……………………………….31 30 – 61
3-point goals: Boyceville: B. Sempf 2, Larson. Elk Mound: Bohl 4, Heath 2, Steinhorst, Jenson.