Lady Vikings continue to roll with pair of conference wins
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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
Although it’s still early in the season, the Colfax girls took a big step towards defending their conference title with a hard fought 52-43 win at home against Durand December 14, and topped off the week when they went on the road and bulldozed the Boyceville Bulldogs 59-24 three days later.
The victories boosted the Vikings conference record to an unblemished 4-0 and they are 8-1 overall. The girls traveled to Ladysmith last evening (December 21) before returning from the holiday break for a game in Fall Creek on Monday, January 3.
Durand
The Panthers are one of the teams who are expected to give the Vikings a run for their money in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference this season and the first half of the game showed it.
With both teams playing a full court pressure defense most of the contest, it took over three minutes at the start of the game before anyone found the bottom of the net. It turned out to be the Vikings who found it first with McKenna Shipman going on a six-point run with a shot off an offensive rebound, a three pointer and a free throw. Aynsley Olson followed with a triple to make it 9-0, and the Panthers finally found the basket with 9:36 left in the half on a shot from Bently Bauer.
Shipman showed off her passing skills by finding Jeanette Hydukovich in the lane for an 11-2 advantage, but the Panthers began to make a move with a five-point run.
Jasmine Best countered for the Vikings with a drive through the lane and Shipman added another bucket underneath for a 15-9 lead.
Durand’s All Conference player Madisyn Kilboten drained a triple and after Shipman was called for a charge, Kilboten canned another trey for a 16-15 Panther lead. However, Shipman pulled down another offensive board and found an open Jillian Bowe at the top of the circle who calmly dropped in her own three point shot to make it 18-16 for the Vikings. But, with 35 seconds left in the half, Kilboten drove the lane for two points, while the Vikings failed to get a shot off in the final 13 seconds and the teams entered the locker room knotted at 18-18.
Kilboten started the second half much like the end of the first as she put the Panthers up with another shot from behind the arc. But, Emilee Burcham-Scofield used a spin move twice in the paint for two buckets, then Bowe hit another timely three ball and Burcham-Scofield knocked down a short jumper to put Colfax back up 27-23. Best drove end-to-end, not once, but twice for consecutive layups and hit a free toss to boot for a 32-25 Viking advantage.
Durand wasn’t ready to let the Vikings pull away however, as they closed the gap to 32-30 before Shipman, on an assist from Burcham-Scofield, scored in the paint. After Olson stuffed a Durand shooter, Burcham-Scofield drained two free throws and scored on a put back followed by Shipman’s bucket from a nifty pass from Bowe, and suddenly it was 40-30 for the Vikings.
They maintained a seven to 12 point lead the rest of the game, with most of their points coming from the foul line. Bowe knocked down 6-of-8 of those shots and Best was 2-for-2.
Shipman was the high scorer for Colfax with 16 points, eight in each half while Bowe added 12 points on two triples and six free tosses. Burcham-Scofield finished with ten points all in the second half and Best tacked on nine points. Colfax drained four treys and shot 12-for-25 at the foul line.
Kilboten led the Panthers with 19 points as her team canned six triples and went 11-for-14 at the foul stripe.
Boyceville
The Bulldogs have had their share of struggles in the past several years and things appeared to not have gotten much better for them. Colfax started the game with a 12-point run, starting with buckets by Shipman, Madison Barstad, Shipman again with a free throw, a triple by Bowe and Shipman again off an assist from Best.
Boyceville managed to get eight points on the board but in between their scoring spree, Burcham-Scofield hit a shot off a put back and Bowe drained another trey. Five new players came into the game for Colfax, resulting in Molly Heidorn canning a shot from three point land, Jeanette Hydukovich dropping in a short hook shot, and Olson hitting from behind the arc for a 25-8 Viking advantage.
Colfax continued to hit from all over the floor while the Bulldogs weren’t able to get many shots off and it was a 38-13 lead for the Vikings at intermission time.
It was more of the same the second half as Boyceville went scoreless until six minutes were left in the game. In the mean time, Shipman, Bowe, Barstad, Burcham-Scofield, and Olson were racking up points and when Jenna Goodell added five points on a triple and a put back, it was running clock time with the Vikings up 57-15. Olson added a final bucket after the Bulldogs managed to score nine points.
Shipman led the Vikings with 15 points, Olson had her career high with 12, Bowe added eight, Burcham-Scofield seven, Barstad six, Goodell five, and Heidorn and Hydukovich each had three.
Colfax nailed six triples in the game and were five-for-11 at the free throw line.
Rachael Montgomery scored seven points to lead the Bulldogs.
“I thought our girls came ready to play right from the start,” said head coach Courtney Sarauer. “McKenna had some easy buckets right away and Jill got us going from the outside. We jumped on them right away. Aynsley Olson did a great job off the bench.”
“I thought all of our kids played great. I was able to get a lot of kids some great minutes,” she concluded.