Colfax boys end regular season with loss to Elmwood/Plum City
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COLFAX High School Senior Dustin Niggemann defended an Elmwood/Plum City player late in the game played in Colfax February 24. —photo by Marlys Kruger
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
COLFAX — It’s not exactly the way you want to head into the regional tournament as the Viking boys suffered their fourth consecutive loss, this time at the hands of the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves. The game was in Colfax on senior night February 24, and for the second time this season, the Vikings lost to the Wolves, this time by a score of 61-44.
Colfax finished 4-10 in Dunn-St. Croix Conference play with the loss and will take their 8-15 overall record to Mondovi Tuesday night for a first-round regional contest against the Buffaloes.
The Wolves ended up in second place in the conference at 10-4 with Durand and Spring Valley both finishing with two losses after our neighboring Elk Mound boys beat Spring Valley on this same night. E/PC is led by 6’7 Luke Webb who recently scored his 1,000th point for the team, and is averaging 18 points a game.
Austin Swanson started things off on a positive note as he scored all six of the Vikings points from three shots under the hoop, but the Wolves countered with 12 points, six by Webb. Nate Hydukovich knocked down a free toss and Jack Scharlau added two more, but Webb and his teammates pulled out to a 22-9 advantage and the Vikings never got closer then 10 points the rest of the game.
COLFAX High School senior Coltin Lemon drove to the hoop for two points late in the game against Elmwood/Plum City in the game played on Senior Night February 24 in Colfax. —photo by Marlys Kruger
The Vikings found some success offensively as Swanson added his fourth bucket, Bryce Sikora hit a short jumper and Elijah Entzminger and Sikora drained back to back triples, but again the Wolves continued to score. Colfax didn’t have an answer for Webb who scored six of his team’s points during that span and Colfax was down 29-19. With around four minutes left in the half, the Vikings had six possessions but turned the ball over or mis-fired on several shots, including a final shot at the buzzer and the half ended with E/PC up 34-19.
The second half didn’t start much better for Colfax when they went cold from the field again for two and a half minutes before Sikora scored from close range to keep them down 42-21. Sophomore Mason Yarrington entered the game and in a span of a couple of minutes buried a pair of triples and the Vikings were down 52-27. Sikora dropped in another short range shot, Ryan Albricht scored his only points of the game on a triple, Lenz hit from close range, Kyle Irwin put up his only points on a layup and a free throw with it and Mitch Medin dropped in a free toss to make it 61-37.
A pair of seniors who did not see much varsity time entered the game for the Vikings with around four minutes to go. Coltin Lemon and Dustin Niggemann finished off the scoring with a short range shot by Niggemann, and in the spirit of good sportsmanship on both teams, Lemon drove through a somewhat open lane twice and scored two layups for the Viking’s final points as fans from both sides of the court stood and cheered.
12 players scored for the Vikings with Sikora leading the way with nine points. Swanson added eight, Yarrington tacked on six, Lemon four, and Irwin, Entzminger and Albricht all had three. Scoring two points were Niggemann, Lenz and Scharlau while Hydukovich and Medin both had one. The Vikings knocked down five triples and were 5-for-10 at the foul line.
Webb finished with 26 for the Wolves and Travis Seipel added 13. The team made four treys and were 9-for-14 in free throws. E/PC will host Cadott in a first round regional game Tuesday.
“Luke Webb is a good player and he showed why he is one of the top three players in the conference,” said Colfax head coach Mark Noll. “He had a fast start and that really affected our game plan on what we wanted to do.”
“We enjoyed celebrating our seniors in this game. I loved how they cheered for each other and each player had success during the game,” concluded Noll.