Colfax boys lose pair of D-SC games to Spring Valley and Boyceville
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COLFAX’S Elijah Entzminger (#10) threw up and awkward shot after being tripped on his way to the hoop. Teammate Nick Jensen looked to grabbed the rebound. Entzminger was fouled on the play and made both free throws and finished with 13 points for the Vikings who lost 61-49 in Boyceville last Friday, February 10.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
All coaches hope at the beginning of the basketball season their team will be playing their best ball when playoff time rolls around.
But, for the Colfax boys, that doesn’t seem to be happening as they lost their sixth consecutive game after a 61-52 loss at home against Spring Valley February 9 and due to an early start in Boyceville, went down in defeat to the Bulldogs 61-49 less than 24 hours later.
Both games were Dunn-St. Croix Conference games and left the Vikings at 4-7 in conference play and 9-10 overall with the WIAA playoffs starting February 28.
Colfax also has a pair of conference contests this week. It hosted Elk Mound last night (February 14) and then goes to Elmwood this Friday, February 17 to take on the Wolves of Elmwood-Plum City. The Vikings then close out the regular season at home, hosting Wausau East next Monday, February 20 and Glenwood City on Thursday, February 23.
Spring Valley
The Cardinals have been one of the dominant teams in the conference in the past decade or so and have been well coached with plenty of talented athletes. Colfax lost to them earlier in the season 81-69 and when they came to Colfax they were 7-3 in conference play and 12-8 overall.
But this time around, the Vikings seemed to be ready for them and pushed them to the limit before the Cardinals held on for the win.
The Vikings held a 6-5 lead early on with three deuces, one each by Kyle Irwin, Blake Johnson and Jack Scharlau. Spring Valley scored on a put back but Nick Jensen, who has become a threat from long range as of lately, drained his second triple of the year for a 9-7 Colfax advantage. The Cardinals countered again before Scharlau canned a pair of free throws for a 11-9 lead and a Spring Valley triple produced a lead change with them up 12-11.
Aiden Fischer knocked down a trey to put Colfax ahead 14-12 and the Cardinals knotted it up again. Fischer dropped in a free toss and Scharlau drove the baseline for a bucket but two shots from long range by the Cardinals gave them a 20-17 lead.
Colfax was hitting shots but so were the Cardinals, as Scharlau and Elijah Entzminger both hit from the paint but they were still down 22-21.
SHOWING OFF his perimeter shooting skills, the Vikings Nick Jensen canned this three-point shot in a February 10 boys’ basketball game in Boyceville. Jensen finished with a game-high 20 points which included a trio of treys but it wasn’t enough as the Bulldogs won the contest 61-49. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
The Vikings didn’t score again until two seconds before the half when Entzminger hit a free throw, but Spring Valley didn’t have any problems as they canned a pair of triples and a close range shot for a 30-22 halftime lead.
Spring Valley upped the lead with a pair of free throws to start the second half, but a fire had been started when the Vikings scored six straight points including Entzminger’s short jumper and Scharlau’s two free tosses and a shot in the lane to close the gap at 32-28. Entzminger and Scharlau added a deuce apiece but for some reason, it seems like every team the Colfax boys play knock down tons of three pointers in every contest. That was the case as they connected on three of them in the next few minutes to pull ahead 43-36.
Scharlau drained a long jumper, Fischer drilled a triple, Entzminger added a bucket in the paint and Scharlau’s free toss brought the Vikings to within a point, down 43-42. And just a few seconds later, Fischer’s third trey of the game brought the crowd to their feet as it gave Colfax a 45-43 lead with around six minutes to play. Scharlau added to the lead with a free throw, but it was quickly knotted up by – you guessed it – another Cardinal triple.
The Viking offense went stagnant as they failed to score on four possessions and with the help of RJ Hybben’s fifth triple of the game, Spring Valley went up 53-46. The Vikings were in the bonus and Scharlau and Entzminger both hit 1-of-2 free tosses and Entzminger scored on a pretty nifty fade-away to get the score to 56-50 with 1:38 to go. But the clock was running down and Colfax forced the Cardinals to go to the foul stripe four times where they made enough free shots to finish off the win.
“This was a tough, physical game tonight,” coach Mark Noll said. “We dug ourselves out of an eight-point hole at halftime and pulled ahead with four minutes left but couldn’t hold the lead,” he added.
Scharlau was top scorer for the Vikings with 19 points while Entzminger added 15 and Fischer 11. Colfax connected on five treys, three from Fischer, and the team was 11-for-20 from the charity stripe, led by Scharlau who was 7-for-10.
Spring Valley sophomore Cade Stasiek who averages 18 points a game, scored 21 to lead the team while Hybben added 15 on five treys. The Cardinals drained 10 triples on the night and were 13-for-17 at the free throw line in the game.
Boyceville
The Bulldogs were coming off one of their best games of the year when they lost a close one to conference leading Elk Mound the night before. That meant they either would come out flying with a lot of confidence, or be flat footed and worn out from the highly emotional game.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, the Bulldogs didn’t appear tired at all as they took an early lead and never allowed the Vikings to get ahead in the Friday, February 10 contest.
Jensen put up 10 of his career high 20 points in the first half with Entzminger adding four, Fischer three and Irwin and Scharlau two each. The teams went into halftime with the Bulldogs up 25-21.
Keeping in mind Colfax had beaten Boyceville earlier in the season 68-50, the second half had all the makings of a Viking comeback especially when Elijah Entzminger drained a three to open play to bring them within one at 25-24.
But, the Bulldogs were not about to let this one slip away as they drained four of their seven triples in the latter half and finished the game off at the charity stripe with 10 free throws in the last three minutes to take the 61-49 win.
“This was a super physical game and we just couldn’t finish our shots,” coach Noll said after the loss.
For the first time in his varsity career, Jensen led the team in scoring with 20 points including a trio of triples and a 5-for-5 performance at the foul line. Entzminger added 13 points and was also perfect with 6-of-6 free tosses and Fischer tacked on 11 points. Colfax tallied five treys and went 12-for-16 at the free throw line.
The Bulldogs were led by Nick Olson and Simon Evenson with 13 points each and the team finished with seven triples and 12-for-16 free throws.