Boyceville boys still in search of a conference win
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by Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
The Boyceville Boys Basketball team is still in search of another ‘W’ as they lost three more games – all in conference play and on the road – this past week.
The week started last Monday, February 1st with a 53-75 loss to the Colfax Vikings. This was actually their best game of the week as things got worse. The following evening, Tuesday, February 2, the Bulldogs fell hard to the Mondovi Buffaloes by a score of 21-70. Then on Friday, February 5th, Boyceville suffered a 26-58 loss to the Durand Panthers.
The Bulldogs, 0-11 and 1-18, finish up the regular season with three tough home games this week. They hosted second-place Elk Mound on Monday, February 8th, third-place Mondovi on Tuesday and will welcome league-leading Spring Valley in this Thursday’s conference and regular-season finale.
Boyceville will then wipe the slate clean as they begin the WIAA playoffs on the road. The Bulldogs, who received the sixth seed in their Division 4 regional, will travel to third-seeded Webster next Tuesday, February 16 for a quarterfinal’s contest. The victor will advance to the Friday, February 19 semifinal game against host and number two seed Grantsburg. The final is set for Saturday night, February 20.
Colfax
Despite their loss to the Vikings, head coach Colby Dotseth thought that his Boyceville charges played well in the first half. He said that they played competitively with the Vikings for all but the last minute and a half where the Vikings went on an eight-point run. Which really affected their momentum. At the end of the first half, the Bulldogs trailed by eight points, 34-42.
In the second half, the Bulldogs hit a wall and ran out of gas offensively, according to Dotseth.
“But team effort wise, it was our best game as a group as far as talking and really playing with a chip on our shoulder,” noted Dotseth.
The second half ended with the Vikings outscoring the Bulldogs 33-19.
Dotseth lauded the play of Connor Sempf saying, “He has been a great leader for us on the floor.” Sempf led the Bulldogs with 14 points.
Dotseth also liked the play of Chase Hollister who had ten points for the night and who Dotseth noted had his best game offensively and defensively all year. “He crashed the boards hard and was aggressive with the basketball when given opportunities,” said Dotseth of Hollister’s play against Colfax.
One of the up and coming freshman, Nick Olson, played very well in the one half he was given to play, according to Dotseth. “He continues to be more assertive offensively (ten points) and really gives us great energy and effort on both ends of the floor.”
“It has been slow moving, but the boys have really been showing their true potential lately and hopefully we can get that out of them before seasons end,” concluded Dotseth.
Boyceville (53)
FG-FT-F-TP: Retz 2-2-1-6, Wold 1-1-1-3, Evenson 2-0-0-5, Sempf 5-1-2-14, Olson 4-1-1-10, Halama 0-0-2-0, Roemhild 0-0-2-0, Larson 2-0-0-5, Bowell 0-0-1-0, Hollister 4-0-2-10. Total 20-5-12-53.
Colfax (75)
FG-FT-F-TP: Knudson 1-0-1-2, Entzminger 3-1-0-7, Erickson 5-2-2-14, Albricht 1-0-4-3, Hoffman 3-0-1-8, Lenz 6-0-0-12, Heidorn 4-1-0-10, Rebak 2-1-2-6, Gibson 4-4-0-12, Jensen 0-1-1-1. Total 29-10-11-75.
Boyceville……………….………..34 19 – 53
Colfax……………………………….42 33 – 75
3-point goals: Boyceville: Evenson, Sempf 3, Olson, Larson, Hollister 2. Colfax: Erickson 2, Albricht, Hoffman 2, Heidorn, Rebak.
Mondovi
With such a huge loss (49 points) to Mondovi February 2, Dotseth stated that this was definitely a hard game to swallow.
He sums up the game and their performance as follows “We just from the tip didn’t have any energy and it showed throughout the whole contest. We struggled all night with their length and their trapping abilities in the half court. We turned the ball over a lot and unfortunately it led to a lot of live ball turnovers which led to fast break points for Mondovi.”
“It was a very frustrating game all the way around with effort and hustle and just not being able to get where we want to get too offensively,” continued Dotseth. “We play them next week again so hopefully we compete with more effort and aggressiveness and not shy away from their zone pressure defense. All we can do is forget about this performance and reset ourselves to play with more assertiveness in the next few contests.”
The game was all but over by half as the Bulldogs trailed 40 to nine after the first 18 minutes. Things did get a bit better in the second half, but the Buffaloes still stampeded to a 30-12 point advantage to take the 70-21 win.
Sempf was the only one in double digits for the Bulldogs finishing with ten points.
Boycveille (21)
FG-FT-F-TP: Retz 2-0-2-4, Evenson 0-0-1-0, Sempf 4-1-3-10, Olson 0-0-1-0, Halama 0-0-1-0, Phillips 0-0-1-0, Roemhild 0-0-1-0, Larson 0-0-1-0, Bowell 2-0-1-4, Kaiser 1-1-1-3, Hollister 0-0-1-0. Total 9-2-14-21
Mondovi (70)
FG-FT-F-TP: Larson 1-0-0-2, Marten 5-4-1-16, J. Falkner 5-2-1-14, W. Falkner 3-0-0-6, D. Rud 1-2-1-5, Gray 4-1-0-11, Everson 1-0-3-3, Parr 0-0-1-0, A. Rud 2-0-0-4, Myren 2-0-1-4, Brion 2-0-1-4, Evans 0-0-1-0, Johnston 0-0-2-0. Total 26-9-12-70.
Boyceville…………………………..9 12 – 21
Mondovi…………………………….40 30 – 70
3-point goals: Boyceville: Sempf. Mondovi: Larson 2, Marten 2, D. Rud, Gray 2, Everson, Myren.
Durand
In the game against the Durand Panthers February 5, the Bulldogs’ woes just seemed to compile even further.
“This was a rough game for us throughout the whole contest,” commented Coach Dotseth on his team’s 26-58 loss to the Panthers.
Turnovers and missed shots don’t make for a good combination when trying to win a basketball game and the Bulldogs were laden with both for most of the first half.
“We never got in a groove and never found a rhythm offensively. I didn’t think Durand pressured us overly hard compared to some other teams but we definitely as a group played on our heels on both ends of the floor,” remarked Dotseth.
As for the turnovers, Dotseth noted that most were just self-inflicted mental turnovers. As a result, the first half ended with the Bulldogs only scoring seven points to the Panthers 40.
The second half was much closer with the Bulldogs scoring 19 and the Panthers 18 but of course by then the damage had been done.
What really made Dotseth happy in the second half was the play of freshmen Braden Roemhild and Devin Halama who shined in their one half of play. “They gave us great minutes and really hustled out there.”
Unfortunately, fellow freshman Nick Olson is now out with a leg injury. With that Dotseth remarked, “We need these younger kids to step out of there comfort zones in the next two weeks and take on larger roles.”
Dotseth complimented senior Walker Retz saying he really got after it on the offensive and defensive glass. While Connor Sempf led the scoring for the Dogs with 15 points.
As Dotseth looks to the future he ended with the following remarks, “Our final three games to end the year are against tough conference competition and hopefully we can compete in those games and not hang our heads early on in the contests and give poor effort. Which will hopefully mentally prepare ourselves to give our best effort the following week in the playoffs as we travel to Webster.”
Boyceville…………………………7 19 – 26
Durand……………………………..40 18 – 58