Colfax boys earn first basketball win of the season, finish 1-2 for the week
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COLFAX’S Blake Johnson (#23) scored his only basket on this fast-break opportunity during a Saturday, December 9 game against Chippewa Falls McDonell. The Vikings lost the game, which was played at UW-Stout, by a score of 65-34. —photo by Jacob Maes Photography
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
The Viking boys’ basketball team played three games on the road last week and had to work hard but they held on for a 63-56 win over the Whitehall Norsemen Monday, December 4 for their first win of the season. Things got a little harder when they started Dunn-St. Croix Conference play at Durand three days later and lost 55-32. Playing a Saturday evening game against Chippewa Falls McDonell Central at UW-Stout resulted in a 65-34 loss.
Colfax (0-1, 1-5) played in Boyceville Tuesday and host Spring Valley this Friday, December 15. The Vikings finish off their pre-holiday schedule with a pair of home non-conference contests versus Cochrane-Fountain City December 19 and Augusta on December 22.
Whitehall
It was a fast paced game from start to finish for both teams with several lead changes throughout the contest. Whitehall, playing out of the Large Dairyland Conference, ended their season a year ago in the semifinals of the Division 4 WIAA state tournament. They lost a few players from that team but had Brayden Lisowski back who was averaging 25 points a game already this season.
Elijah Entzminger and Eli Ralph accounted for the first 10 points of the game for a 10-4 lead, but after that neither team led by more than three points the rest of the first half. Aiden Fischer drained a triple to knot the score at 13-13, Orion Nichols hit a pair of shots off offensive rebounds and Blake Johnson and Fischer scored on fast break layups but the Norseman countered on every shot. Fischer and Entzminger both knocked down two free throws but the Vikings trailed 26-25 at the intermission.
Whitehall pulled ahead 28-25 to start the second half but Entzminger hit a jumper and Mason Yarrington canned a timely three ball to knot it at 30-30. Fischer dropped in a free toss and Entzminger scored in the paint than assisted Nichols on a bucket, but once again the Norsemen countered. Fischer had the hot hand at the foul stripe as he hit two more for a 37-34 Colfax advantage and Nichols scored twice in the lane along with Fischer and the Vikings had a little breathing room, up 43-36 midway through the half. Ralph found his place under the basket and used his height to score twice over the Whitehall defenders for a 47-40 Viking advantage.
Whitehall closed the gap on a triple but Fischer matched it with his own and a drive through the lane by Nichols gave the Vikings their largest lead of the game at 52-43. Ralph found some space in the lane again for two buckets to maintain the lead at 56-47 but the Norsemen made a run to close the gap at four points with 1:34 left. Consistency at the charity stripe sealed the win for Colfax, starting with two freebies from Entzminger and five by Fischer.
“We found our defensive effort we have been looking for in the second half,” Colfax coach Mark Noll said. “And we had a balanced offensive attack. We made the plays we needed to win on the road,” he added.
VIKING Aiden Fischer (#4) scored two of his team high ten points in a non-conference game against Chippewa Falls McDonell Catholic that was played December 9 at UW-Stout.
—photo by Jacob Maes Photography
Fischer was high man for the Vikings with 19 points including a 9-for-10 performance at the foul line. Ralph scored a career high 14 points and Nichols also had a career high with 13 points while Entzminger ended in double figures with 12. Colfax was 14-for-17 at the charity with a trio of triples. The Viking defense held Lisowski to 10 points and the Norseman drained five triples and were 3-for-4 at the foul line.
Durand
Although the Vikings handled the Panthers press okay, according to coach Noll, they couldn’t handle the zone defense that was thrown against them all night.
With two players standing at 6’ 6” scoring 19 of the Durand points, Colfax couldn’t deal with the height difference and were not aggressive enough with the ball and were down 33-12 at the half. Nine of those points came from shooting over the zone from three-point land on shots by Fischer, Entzminger and Johnson.
Trey Larson came in for the second half and scored five points on a triple and a deuce for the Vikings, while Ralph and Logan Swartz both scored four points each but they couldn’t shut down the Panthers offense.
Entzminger, the Vikings leading scorer with a 16 point average, was held to six points in the contest, while Fischer, who has been averaging around 14 points a game had just five points. Colfax knocked down five triples in the game and were 3-for-4 at the foul line.
Parker Almsted led the Panthers with 16 points. Durand finished with nine steals in the game and collected 39 rebounds. They made 7-of-13 free tosses and four treys.
McDonell Central
Things just went from bad to worse when the Vikings faced off against the Macks. Chippewa Falls McDonell came home with a Silver Ball at the WIAA Division 5 state tournament a year ago, and although they lost their top two scorers, it appeared they just reloaded with tall players and good shooters.
Colfax fell behind 16-0 due to several turnovers and shots that were off the mark. When they did get a shot off, the Macks dominated the boards to make sure there was no second chances for them.
Entzminger finally put the Vikings on the board with a drive through the lane and a free throw, and when Nichols connected from the top of the key and dropped in a pair of free throws, they were behind 26-7. Yarrington drained a triple and Fischer added two free tosses but the deficit continued to get bigger when they were behind 36-12. The Macks were hitting from the outside and if they missed, they were getting several chances to score on just about every possession by clearing the boards. Johnson scored on a free throw and after he swiped the ball, scored on an end-to-end layup. The Vikings finished off the half with three attempts from behind the arc that did not find the basket and they trailed 40-15 at the break.
Fischer opened the second stanza with a jumper and a put back while Entzminger scored on a fast break layup, but the Macks were hitting three pointers from all over the floor. Colfax fell behind 58-21 before Entzminger broke the run with a 10 foot shot.
With the score at 63-23 with eight minutes left, it went to a running time clock and the Macks started to clear their bench. The Vikings took advantage with Ralph, Nichols and Fischer all scoring from close range and a free throw from Nichols and back-to-back fast break layups by Yarrington and Fischer ended the Colfax scoring. McDonell ran out the clock for the last 40 seconds of the game.
Fischer scored 10 points to lead the Vikings while Entzminger and Nichols both had seven. The Vikings were 7-of-9 at the Charity stripe with Yarrington being credited with the only triple of the game. The Macks were led by Cael Holm with 20 points with four of the team’s nine shots from three-point land. They missed their one and only free throw attempt of the game.
Offensive and defensive issues once again hurt us,” coach Noll said. “McDonell is a very quick and athletic team and we had a hard time keeping them in front of us. We are going back to the drawing board and will figure out what works for our team,” he concluded.