Lady Vikings finish week with two wins, one loss
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Unloading a pass, Colfax freshman Jordyn Bowe found an open teammate in the game against Spring Valley played February 2 in Colfax. — Photo by Marlys Kruger
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
It was a busy week for the Colfax basketball team, starting with a non-conference game at Altoona Monday, January 30. The Vikings came out on the short end of the score 59-52 against the Rails but ended the week with back-to-back Dunn-St. Croix Conference wins including a 62-20 contest against Spring Valley on Thursday, and the following night, in a make-up game at home against Mondovi, they won 55-45.
Colfax has a pair of conference games this week. It hosted Elk Mound last night (February 7) and goes to Elmwood this Friday, February 10 to play the EPC Wolves. The Vikings then finish off the regular season with home games against Fall Creek on Monday, February 13 and Glenwood City Thursday, February 16.
Altoona
Altoona was 8-8 overall and 4-4 in the Middle Border Conference when the game began and it didn’t take long to see where the strength of their game was. Their 6’ 5” post player Alyssa Wirth, who averages just 15 points a game, scored 15 of her game high 35 points in the first half alone, which proved to be too much for the Viking defenders to deal with.
McKenna Shipman started her night off with a bang, scoring the first nine points of the game for Colfax starting with a triple and following with three shots in the paint but the Vikings were down 12-9. Jeanette Hydukovich added a deuce and Jordyn Bowe drilled a triple to give Colfax a 14-13 lead but the Rails pulled ahead 22-14 before Shipman scored on a put back.
Jaycey Bowe drained a three pointer and Aynsley Olson hit a bucket and a free throw to get the Vikings closer, down 30-24 but the Vikings misfired on three shots from behind the arc and managed just a single free toss by Jada Anderson before the half as they went into the locker room down 32-25.
Anderson came out firing in the second half knocking down a triple and Hydukovich scored twice in the paint but Wirth scored 11 of the Rails next 12 points as they pulled ahead 45-32.
Olson scored on a drive and “drew the harm” knocking down the free toss and Shipman canned a trey and added a deuce to get the Vikings back to a seven point deficit at 47-40. Colfax managed to keep putting points up with two Kaysen Goodell free throws, buckets by Jordyn Bowe and Olson and another Anderson trey but Wirth was dominating in the lane and countering those points. With one minute left the Vikings were down 58-47 and Shipman and Olson both dropped in a free throw and Shipman topped off her 20-point night with her third trey of the contest.
Anderson joined Shipman in the double digits scoring with 10 points as the Vikings drained seven triples in the contest and were 9-for-15 at the charity stripe. Wirth was the only Rail player to score more than six points as her team finished 11-for-14 at the foul line with four treys.
Spring Valley
It was the second round of conference play for the two teams with the Vikings earning a 61-34 win over the Cardinals back in December. This game played out much like the first with the Vikings scoring the first nine points of the game starting with a Hydukovich put back, a Shipman deuce, an Olson triple and another Shipman bucket in the paint. Audrey Mathison broke the ice for the Cardinals with a triple but it was a long, long time before they would add to their score.
Colfax used a 16-point run to pull ahead 25-3 with help from Hydukovich scoring three times in the paint and Olson draining a pair of treys and adding a close range shot.
The Cardinals were struggling against the Viking’s full court press but finally managed to score five points before Shipman unloaded a three pointer and Goodell swiped the ball and drove end to end for a layup for a 30-8 advantage. Shipman scored on a put back and it was 32-10 for Colfax at the intermission.
Hydukovich took all of 15 seconds to add to the Colfax point total with a shot in the paint to start the second half, and although Shipman was off the mark on a three-point attempt, she followed her shot up and scored under the hoop. Autumn Niggemann put her team up 38-10 with a put back and the Cardinals showed a little spark with five points which included another triple. Niggemann broke their run with a bucket off an in-bounds pass and Jordyn Bowe followed up with a triple to make it 43-18.
After a Hydukovich deuce, it was a pair of freshmen who finished off the scoring as Sierra Shipman and Jordyn Bowe combined to score the next 13 points. Sierra Shipman put up a career high 10 points with four fast break layups and a 2-for-6 performance at the foul stripe while Bowe drained her second triple of the contest which also gave her a career high in points with six.
Hydukovich led the Vikings with yet another career high of 16 points while McKenna Shipman added 13 to go with eight from Olson and seven from Niggemann. Colfax was 2-for-6 in free throws and connected on six shots from behind the arc. Charli Vanasse finished with seven points for the Cardinals and her team knocked down three triples and were 1-for-2 at the foul line.
Mondovi
Much like the Spring Valley team, Mondovi was sitting in the middle of the D-SC Conference at 5-5. In the first go-round between the Vikings and the Buffaloes, the Vikings blew them away 77-39 but this game turned out to be a little closer.
You might say the game was won at the free throw line since the Vikings knocked down 17-of-27 foul shots while Mondovi was 3-for-6. Colfax led at the break 37-23 as McKenna Shipman scored 13 of her game high 22 points in the half while Hydukovich added 10. Goodell scored seven and Olson and Niggemann both canned a triple to finish off the half.
Jaycee Bowe went to the charity stripe and hit 4-of-5 free throws and Shipman tacked on eight more points in the second half to help the Vikings finish off the win.
Besides Shipman’s 22 points, Goodell ended her night with 12 and Hydukovich added 11.