Colfax girls’ basketball season comes to an end with sectional semifinal loss to Unity
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GOING FOR TWO — Seville Wilson (#33) went up for two against Lizzy Tilton (#12) in the sectional semi-final Thursday night.
—photo by Amber Hayden
By Amber Hayden
CHETEK — It was not the ending that the Colfax girls’ basketball team had envisioned for this season.
The second-seeded Lady Eagles of Unity swooped into the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser gym last Thursday evening, March 5 and carried off a 52-40 WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal victory over the top-ranked and stunned Viking girls.
“We picked a bad night to not play well,” said head coach Joe Doucette. “I thought defensively we were good enough, but it was the offensive end where we struggled.”
Colfax’s tournament trail and season ended for a fourth consecutive year with a loss in the sectionals.
Senior Rachel Scharlau was first to score for the Lady Vikes as she hit a bucket from underneath, but it wasn’t without the pressure of the Eagles defense. Madison Strange and Myah Nelson kept a double team on Scharlau for most the night, limiting her to six points all evening.
Colfax kept a tight defense on the Eagles’ top scorer Raegan Sorenson throughout the first half, but it did not keep the Unity player from putting up a commanding 15 points in the opening 18 minutes.
Kameri Meredith helped Colfax to gain the lead with ten minutes left on the clock, but it would be the first and only lead the Vikings had.
“We had trouble with their zone getting good shots, and we had too many turnovers that led to easy points for them,” Doucette explained. “We had trouble all night with Sorenson, she was the best player on the floor tonight and gave us problems on both ends.”
Coach Doucette tried to change things up against the Eagles as he rotated his bench players out and had his senior starters sitting, it worked for a while as Taylor Irwin was able to break through to the inside and hit a double while falling to the floor.
The Vikings headed into the locker room down by nine, 19-28, and came up short in the second half as the game ended 40-52.
“All night we did not look comfortable on offense, we took a lot of ok shots but did not get many great ones,” said coach Doucette. “I feel bad for our seniors, I know they really wanted to win and I thought we tried pretty hard. But just could not get much going.”
LAY-UP — Kameri Meredith (#14) went up for two against Unity’s Sierra Swanson (#10) in the WIAA D4 Sectional Semi-final Thursday evening, March 5. —photo by Amber Hayden
Colfax came out more aggressive in the second half as Kameri Meredith put up two quick points from inside.
The Vikings fought foul trouble throughout the second half as Rachel Scharlau received her fourth foul half way through the second stanza, which was followed by fouls from Meredith, Saville Wilson, and Addy Olson.
Turnovers also plagued the Vikings throughout and allowed several Unity players the ability to score inside the paint.
Colfax will have big shoes to fill next season as they lose Kameri Meredith, Rachel Scharlau, Morgan Schleusner, Taylor Irwin, Jayna Bowe, Saville Wilson, and Josie Steinke all to graduation in the coming months.
With the win the Unity Eagles went on to face Melrose-Mindoro in the sectional final game Saturday afternoon, March 7 in the Colfax gym.
“I hope they give them a run for their money,” said senior Rachel Scharlau in regard to the Eagles and Mustangs game. “They were better than us tonight, and I hope they can win.”
Unfortunately that was not the case as the Mustangs demolished the Eagles 82-40 to claim their third consecutive sectional crown and berth in this week’s girls’ state tournament in Green Bay.
Despite the sectional semifinal loss, the Lady Vikings turned in another stellar campaign as they finished 21-4 with another Dunn-St. Croix title and fourth straight regional championship.
Colfax (40) FG-FT-F-TP: T. Irwin 3-0-0-8, M. Schleusner 0-1-3-1, K. Meredith 5-2-4-13, M. Barstad 2-2-3-7, A. Olson 1-0-1-3, S. Wilson 1-0-1-2, R. Scharlau 3-0-4-6. Totals 15-5-18-40.
Unity (52)
FG-FT-F-TP: R. Sorensen 9-3-2-22, S. Swanson 4-0-2-8, L. Tilton 1-0-2-3, M. Nelson 1-2-1-4, M. Strange 4-2-2-12, S. Bader 0-3-1-3. Total 19-10-10-52.
Colfax 19 21 – 40
Unity 28 24 – 52
3-point goals: Colfax: T. Irwin (2), K. Meredith, M. Barstad, A. Olson; Unity: R. Sorensen, L. Tilton, M. Strange (2).