Boyceville boys drop conference games to Colfax, Mondovi
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Playing three conference contests in a span of just five days last week, the Boyceville boys’ basketball team had an opportunity to move up in the Dunn-St. Croix standings.
While the Bulldogs delivered a convincing 75-49 home win over their rivals from Glenwood City last Tuesday, January 17, that triumph (see related story elsewhere in this issue) was tempered by bookend road losses to Colfax and Mondovi.
Tipping off the week in Colfax, the Bulldogs’ struggled offensively, particularly in the second half, losing the Monday, January 16 matchup 68-50. Although Boyceville turned things around the next evening when they hosted Glenwood City, the Bulldogs were unable to carry any of that positive momentum into their game in Mondovi last Friday, January 20, as they were stampeded 79-64 by the Buffaloes.
With those latest outcomes, Boyceville is 7-7 overall and 2-5 in Dunn-St. Croix play.
The Bulldogs once again opened this week’s action with back-to-back games, hosting Eleva-Strum Monday, January 23 and going to Clayton the following evening, Tuesday, January 24 in a pair of non-conference tilts. They will then be at home this Friday, January 27 to welcome conference co-leader Durand-Arkansaw in the pair’s second meeting of the season. Boyceville will be in Spring Valley next Tuesday.
Boyceville
Whenever the Vikings and Bulldogs face off on the hard court, you can bet it will be a very physical game with a lot of run-and-gun play throughout the contest.
Nick Olson started the Bulldogs off with a triple in the January 16 game played in Colfax. The Vikings’ Kyle Irwin eventually drained a triple for Colfax to knot the score at 7-7 and Jack Scharlau put the Vikings up on a shot in the paint.
Colfax got a pair of three-point shots from Mason Yarrington for a 15-12 Viking advantage. The Bulldogs pulled ahead 17-15 on a couple of free throws by Simon Evenson and a long ball from Caden Wold only to have Colfax’s Nick Jensen knotted it up with a jumper but Boyceville went back up 20-17 when Jack Phillips scored in the lane and added a free toss.
Elijah Entzminger scored on the next three Viking possessions as he canned a short jump shot and followed up with back to back triples. Mitch Medin added his own trey for a 28-22 Viking lead.
Peter Wheeldon and Olson combined for four points for Boyceville bringing the Viking lead down to 34-28. Aiden Fischer scored in the paint and an Entzminger free toss upped the Viking lead to 37-28 but the Bulldogs continued to fight back when Evenson drilled a triple, Phillips scored on a put back and Chase Hollister hit a deuce with a free toss. Yarrington halted the streak by draining his third trey of the half and it was a 40-36 advantage at the break for Colfax.
The second half began pretty fast and furious with both teams racing up and down the court. Unfortunately, Colfax was getting its shot to fall while the Bulldogs were not which allowed the Vikings to double up the Bulldogs in the second half, 28-14, and score the 18-point victory.
“Overall as a team, we struggled offensively to put the ball in the hoop,” stated Boyceville head coach Colby Dotseth. “We played fast and shot a lot of open attempts, but just couldn’t convert on most of them. We also allowed Colfax to own the glass and they were able to outrebound us on the offensive end. We are just starting to get some key players back from injury which showed tonight in just not getting a good rhythm offensively.”
Boyceville was led by Evenson and Wold, both with ten points. The Bulldogs drained five triples and were 11-for-12 at the foul line. Meanwhile, Scharlau pounded the paint with eight buckets and two free throws to lead Colfax and all scorers with 18 points while Entzminger added 16 points which included a trio of triples and free throws each. Yarrington put up nine points on his own three long balls. Colfax shot 6-of-11 from the charity stripe with ten three-point shots.
Mondovi
Much like its game in Colfax, Boyceville stayed close throughout the first half when they went to Mondovi January 20.
The Bulldogs trailed by two, 35-33, at the break. And although they scored 31 in the second half, the defense allowed the Buffaloes to put up 44 in the final 18 minutes to claim a 79-64 win.
The Bulldogs shot 25-for-66 from the field and finished 9-for-16 at the free throw line. And after committing just 11 turnovers in the Colfax and Glenwood City games, Boyceville surrendered the basketball 24 times during last Friday’s game, many of which Mondovi turned into points.
“We struggled shooting the ball from the outside and from the free throw line. We also did a poor job taking care of the basketball and had far to many live ball turnovers. We do such a great job taking advantage of our athleticism and attacking the rim and playing fast that sometimes it can catch up to us and we can try to force things,” Dotseth said.
“We went down by double digits numerous times throughout the night, but never folded, we kept battling and always made a run to climb back in to things,” continued Dotseth.
“This was another night where we struggled to shoot the ball from the outside and settled way too much. If we can cut down the live ball turnovers and not settle offensively we believe we can compete with them guys the next time we play,” he concluded.
Simon Evenson led Boyceville in scoring with 19 points on the night and finished with five rebounds, Grant Kaiser, who had been sidelined following a concussion, returned and contributed 13 points and had ten of the Bulldogs 47 rebounds, Caden Wold had netted 10 points on a pair of threes and had four steals and Devin Halama also made two of Boyceville’s five triples to finish with nine points to go along with seven rebounds.
Mondovi, who netted ten threes, had a four players score double digits. Jarod Falkner and Max Marten each hit three treys to finish with 22 and 21 points, respectively. Andrew Rud added 16 points and Dawson Rud ten.