Bulldog boys nearly upset Mounders, sink Vikes

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After eight days without a game, Boyceville boys’ head coach Colby Dotseth was a bit concerned how his players would respond when they finally did return to action late last week in back-to-back conference basketball contests versus league-leader Elk Mound and Colfax.

As it turned out, Dotseth didn’t have much to fret over as the Bulldogs played two of their best games this season in earning a split.

Hitting the road last Thursday, February 9 to face the first-place Mounders on their home court, the Bulldogs bounded to an early double-digits advantage and lead late into the game until Elk Mound was finally able to overtake them and secure a 58-50  win with free throws in the final minute of play.

Twenty-four hours later, Boyceville hosted Colfax in the matinée of a Coaches versus Cancer doubleheader that featured the Lady Bulldogs and the Hilltoppers in the late feature. The game was a make-up of the previous Friday’s contest that had to be postponed a week due to several Boyceville players that were attending an out-of-state science olympiad tournament. Boyceville lead from  the opening tip off to the final horn as it avenged an earlier loss to Colfax with a 61-49 triumph.

“As a team, this was a great win for us,” stated Dotseth of the Colfax victory. “This last week we have played very competitive basketball and we are finally starting to click as  team at the right time of the year.”   

The win over the Vikings gave the Bulldogs their third conference win of the season and put them back at .500 for the season with a 10-10 record heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Boyceville hosted Elmwood-Plum City last evening and will go to Glenwood City this Friday. February 17. The Bulldogs will then cap the regular season with a pair of home contests against Webster on Monday, February 20 and Mondovi Thursday, February 23. Regionals get underway Tuesday, February 28.

Elk Mound

The February 9 matchup between Elk Mound and Boyceville wasn’t billed as a must watch game. With Elk Mound undefeated in conference, and Boyceville owning only two conference wins this game was expected to be lopsided. However, the Bulldogs effort put a scare into the Mounders.

Boyceville jumped out to early 20-9 lead and used that advantage to take a seven-point lead into intermissions. They held the lead most of the second half before Elk Mound was able to claw back into the game and take the lead and hold on for the 58-50 win.

“Tonight, we had to dig down deep to pull out a win when we didn’t play well and Boyceville played exceptionally well,” commented Mounder coach Chris Hahn. “Give them a lot of credit because they hit timely 3-point shots and kept us on our heels most of the night.

Boyceville (9-10, 2-8) was able to connect on ten 3-pointers on the evening, including six in the first half to head into the locker room up 32-25. However, the disparity at the free-throw line was the difference in the game.

The Bulldogs were perfect from the charity strip, but only attempted two shots with both coming early in the game. Whereas the Mounders went 14-for-25 on the evening including 10-for-18 in the second half to help secure the win. 

While the Mounders may have won the game from the free throw line, it could have been Caden Wold’s shooting that almost gave them their first conference loss. The Bulldog junior connected on six, 3 pointers on the evening including four in the first half to propel his team to the lead.

“Caden Wold played by far his best game personally on both the offensive end with 22 points and also on the defensive end,” indicated Bulldog coach Colby Dotseth.

Coming out of a timeout at the 11:00 mark of the first half, Wold’s 3 pointer gave the Bulldogs an 11-point advantage at 20-9. However, the Mounders pulled back into the game, thanks in large part to the dynamic duo of Kaden Russo and Sam Wenzel. The pair account for 21 of the teams 25 first half points.

Elk Mound was able to cut the deficit to two points at 25-23 with just under 4:00 minutes remaining, however a 7-2 Bulldog run down the stretch gave Boyceville the seven-point lead at intermission.

The first part of the second half saw both teams battle back and forth with Boyceville maintaining the lead. It wasn’t until the 7:08 mark that Elk Mound took their first lead at 41-40 on a Russo jumper.

The Bulldogs countered with a Wold 3-point shot to knot the score at 43 apiece. The game remained tight with Boyceville taking their final lead with 2:34 to play at 50-49. At that point, the Bulldogs ran out of steam.

The Mounders hit a 3-pointer with a minute to play to retake the lead at 52-50 and converted on six of eight free throws to seal the victory 58-50.

The win maintains the Mounders (15-4, 10-0) one-game advantage in the standings over Durand-Arkansaw with four conference games remaining.

“Kaden and Sam carried us tonight, scoring nearly all of our points,” commented coach Hahn. “We really needed everything they gave us on offense”

The pair accounted for 49 of Mounders 58 points on the evening, including 28 points in the second half. Russo led the way with 28 point and Wenzel pitched in 21.

The Bulldogs were led by Wold and his outside shooting. He put in 22 points on the evening. Simon Evenson was also dynamic from the field scoring 13 points, connecting on three 3-pointers

The loss for the Bulldogs left them mired near the bottom of the standings. However, the effort against one of the area’s top teams leaves them rejuvenated.

“Last night showed that we are really starting to click at the right time, and I hope it carries us through the next two weeks of the season and into the playoffs,” Coach Dotseth indicated. “We can be a very dangerous team.”

Colfax

The Vikings got the opening tip and had a trio of chances to score first but came away empty handed.

The Bulldogs answered with scores on three consecutive possessions, two-point buckets by Grant Kaiser and Nick Olson and a triple off the hands of Simon Evenson – for a quick 7-0 lead.

With four minutes gone in the opening half, Elijah Entzminger finally put Colfax on the scoreboard with a 12-foot jumper only to see Evenson answer with a pull up of his own.

Boyceville made good use of its three-point shots hitting one every time Colfax came close. Caden Wold hit his only three of the game to give the Bulldogs a 21-13 lead with 3:33 to play in the half. When the Vikings connected on back-to-back triples, Jack Phillips downed his lone three of the evening to put the Bulldogs back in front 25-19.

Nick Jensen hit a pair of free tosses to get Colfax to within 25-21 at intermission.

Entzminger hit a three to open the second half and suddenly Colfax was within a point at 25-24.

But the Vikings would get no closer as the Bulldogs scored 12 points including a conventional hoop and back-to-back triples by Evenson on their next five straight possessions to push out to a 37-26 advantage.

Colfax managed to trim its deficit to five points a couple of times but each time Boyceville responded. Olson nailed threes on consecutive trips down court to push the Bulldogs lead back to ten at 49-39 with just over three minutes remaining in the game.

The Bulldogs went 10-for-10 at the free throw line in waning minutes to seal the 61-49 victory.

“The boys did a great job with handling there full-court pressure and keeping their composure throughout the entire game,” stated Dotseth. 

“We did a great job, I thought, with controlling the tempo of the game and also did a great job with our shot selections. We struggled the first time playing Colfax, but with effort and hustling on the glass and we did a great job limiting them to one shot in this game,” he added.

One key to victory was the emphasis on shutting down the Vikings Jack Scharlau especially on the boards.

“Scharlau grabbed 13 offensive rebounds against us the first time and we made sure that we weren’t going to allow that to happen again,” said Dotseth. “The boys bought into that and I thought both Mason Bowell and Peter Wheeldon did a great job playing physical with him and not allowing us to be beat that way.”

Boyceville finished the night 21-for-40 from the field, 7-for 13 on threes and were 12-for-16 at the foul line. In addition, the Bulldogs had 27 rebounds.

“When you can shoot over 50 percent from the field it is always a good night offensively, but also to hold them to under 50 points showed we played a great defensive game as Colfax is very skilled offensively,” added Dotseth.

Simon Evenson and Nick Olson led the Bulldogs in scoring with 13 apiece. Evenson finishes with three triples and Olson had a pair. Grant Kaiser scored eight of his 12 points in the second half. Caden Wold, Devin Halama and Jack Phillips each tallied seven points.

With Scharlau limited by the Bulldogs’ defense, Nick Jensen picked up the slack for Colfax as he scored season-high 20 points including three of the Vikings five triples. Entzminger added 13 for Colfax who went 12-for-16 at the charity stripe.