Bulldog boys’ lose close one to Cardinals, clocked by Colfax

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By Missy Klatt

BOYCEVILLE — The Bulldog boys’ basketball team fell to both the Cardinals of Spring Valley and the Colfax Vikings this past week at home.

On Tuesday, February 18,  the Bulldogs hosted the Cardinals and it was close but they just couldn’t pull off the upset win as they lost 52-55 to second-place Spring Valley. Then on Friday, February 21, the Vikings came to town and trounced the Bulldogs, 65-50.

Boyceville, who is currently tied for sixth with Elmwood/Plum City at 3-10 in conference action and 4-15 overall, played on Monday, February 24th at Eau Clarie Immanuel and will play its last regular season and conference game this Thursday, February 27 when it travels to Elk Mound.

The Bulldogs will be on the road to open the WIAA Division 4 basketball playoffs. Boyceville was awarded the 11th seed and will travel to Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (#6) for next Tuesday’s (March 3) regional quarterfinal contest. The winning team will advance to Spring Valley to play the third-seeded Cardinals on Friday, March 6.

Spring Valley

According to head coach Colby Dotseth, the Bulldogs got out to a slow start against Spring Valley last Tuesday. As a result, the Cardinals took an early 11-0 lead.

“We have hurt ourselves all year by allowing opponents to make a run at the end of the half. A couple of silly turnovers and we went into the half down by nine (23-32), instead we could of went into the half down by only one possession,” stated Dotseth.

However, once the Bulldogs started clicking they started to battle back.

In the second half, Boyceville went on a couple of runs that narrowed the Cardinal lead. Dotseth said that was due in large part to their outside shooting.

As play continued, the Bulldogs kept battling and were within two points with a minute left to go. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough as the Bulldogs were down by three, 52-55, at the end of the game.

Dotseth had nothing but praise for his players, “The boys played one heck of a game against one of the top teams in the conference and they should not hang their heads for the effort they put in. They keep giving that kind of effort and the reward will start to come with W’s. I thought both Logan Knudtson and Connor Sempf played a great game defensively. In my opinion, the conference player of the year in Borgerding.”

Dotseth also credited Beck Wendland for playing with a lot of energy, giving the team some great minutes in the first half.

Logan Knutdson led the Bulldogs with 22 points followed by Brendan Sempf with 14.

Dotseth concluded, “Overall, the boys really played well, we were down by as many as 14 in the first half and 13 in the second half and the boys never folded. It really showed how much they have grown as a team by the effort they are continuing to put in game after game.”

Boyceville
(52)

FG-FT-F-T: Retz 2-0-2-4, B. Sempf 6-0-3-14, C. Sempf 1-0-5-2, Knudtson 8-2-5-22, Wendland 0-0-0-0, Wruck 0-0-0-0, Larson 2-0-0-6, J. Klefstad 0-0-0-0, C. Klefstad 2-0-2-4, Hollister 0-0-0-0. Total 21-2-16-52.

Spring
Valley
(55)

FG-FT-F-T: SV: Stangl 1-0-0-3, Bauer 6-0-0-16, Bednarek 0-0-0-0, Borberding 5-3-1-15, Bowman 5-2-0-12, Olson 1-0-2-2, Ducklow 4-0-2-8. Total 22-5-6-55.

Boyceville 23  29 – 52

Spring Valley 32 3 – 55

3-point goals: Boyceville: B. Sempf 4, Knudtson 4, Larson 2. Spring Valley: Stangl, Bauer 4, Borberding.

Colfax

In Friday night’s game, the Bulldogs once again started slow and the Vikings jumped out to a 14-2 lead.

It’s not that the Bulldogs were playing terrible, it was just that they weren’t having any success penetrating the lane and their outside shots would not fall.

At the 9:21 mark, Brendan Sempf hit a fade away jumper in the paint but the Vikings then went on a nine-point run to increase their lead to 23-4.

Then with just over six minutes left in the first half, the Bulldogs got some offense going. Logan Knudtson hit a long three pointer and about a minute later was at the free throw line where he connected on both of his shots. Beck Wendland then hit a long base line jumper for two at the 4:44 mark. Then it was Knudtson again, this time driving down the court off a fast break for two more. Brendan Sempf finished out the Bulldogs’ 11-point run with two in the key with about two and a half minutes till halftime.

The Vikings were able to add four more points before the half ended. The Bulldogs attempted one last shot right at the buzzer but had their shot blocked. The Vikings took a 27-15 lead into the locker room.

The second half started the with the Vikings putting up eight points before the Bulldogs got on the board with one free throw five minutes into the half. It was one more from the free throw line before the Vikings came up with a huge bucket from outside the arc. The Vikings now had a 38-17 lead.

For the next several minutes it was close, with the Vikings scoring ten to the Bulldogs eight. The Bulldogs were starting to come alive at the end realizing that even if they couldn’t make their shots inside they were able to draw the foul. In the last five and a half minutes of the game the Bulldogs outscored the Vikings 25-17 which included seven more points from Knudtson and seven points from Connor Sempf. They were also 8 for 9 at the line during this period. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs they ran out of time and their comeback was cut short as the game ended and they were still down by 15 (50-65).

Coach Dotseth reflected on the game saying, “We didn’t come out with very good energy. It was frustrating in the first half, we weren’t really aggressive, just passing the ball around and nobody really attacked the rim at all.”

He went on to say that the second half was better and at least they made it respectable with their run towards the end.

Dotseth noted that Logan Knudtson continues to show good things offensively (18 points for the night). Dotseth also praised the play of Beck Wendland coming off the bench and giving them some great minutes.

Boyceville
(50)

FG-FT-F-T: Retz 1-0-0-3, B. Sempf 4-1-3-11, McRoberts 0-0-2-0, C. Sempf 2-3-3-7, Knudtson 5-7-3-18, Hazelton 0-0-0-0, Wendland 1-0-1-2, Wruck 0-0-0-0, Larson 0-0-0-0, J. Klefstad 0-0-0-0, C. Klefstad 2-3-3-7, Hollister 1-0-2-2. Total 16-14-15-50.

Colfax
(65)

FG-FT-F-T: Rindy 5-1-2-12, Seehaver 4-0-1-10, Hallquist 1-0-5-3, Hyducovich 5-2-0-12, Heidorn 3-3-3-9, Rebak 1-1-3-3, Gibson 3-0-5-7, Sikora 2-5-0-9. Total 24-12-19-65.

Boyceville 15 35 – 50

Spring Valley 27  38 – 65

3-point goals: Boyceville: Retz, B. Sempf 2, Knudtson. Spring Valley: Rindy, Seehaver 2, Hallquist, Gibson.