Colfax boys split pair of D-SC Conference basketball contests

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by Marlys Kruger

Sports Correspondent

Coming off a pretty big loss to McDonell Central three days earlier, the Colfax boys turned things around very quickly and used a total team effort to hang on for a 65-62 overtime win over the Boyceville Bulldogs in Boyceville December 12. Two days later, they finally played a home game after being on the road for five straight games and took on the Spring Valley Cardinals. They hung with the Cardinals for most of the contest but fell apart in the last six minutes and ended up with a 59-45 loss. Both games were Dunn-St. Croix Conference games, leaving the Vikings 1-2 in conference play so far and 2-6 overall.

The boys play a pair of home games this week against non-conference opponents. They played Cochrane-Fountain City Tuesday and have Augusta on Friday.

Boyceville

Four of the five starters for the Bulldogs are seniors who all have plenty of varsity experience. Two of them helped the team jump out to an 8-0 lead including Devin Halama with an opening triple and a close range shot and Nick Olson with another trey. Blake Johnson drilled his own triple for the Vikings and Eli Ralph scored in the paint to get to within three points but the Bulldog’s big man Grant Kaiser scored from under the hoop twice and sophomore Carson Roemhild got hot with a pair of shots from behind the arc for a 20-14 Bulldog lead.

Aiden Fischer drained a three pointer for Colfax and Elijah Entzminger hit a jumper from the top of the key to draw closer but two more Bulldog triples, both by Olson, and another Kaiser deuce allowed Boyceville to pull ahead 30-21. Mason Yarrington came up with a huge trey, then Entzminger connected in the paint and added a bucket with the free toss to boot which left the Vikings down just 33-29 at the half.

Kaiser scored on a put back to start the second half but the Vikings went on an amazing 15-point run. Yarrington started the streak with his second trey of the game, Fischer hit a couple of free throws, Entzminger scored on an in-bounds pass and added a free toss with it to put the Vikings up 36-35, Ralph scored on a fast break then surprised everyone with a shot from three point land. Yarrington added another fast break deuce and it was 44-35 in the Vikings’ favor.

The Vikings went cold from the field after that and allowed the Bulldogs to control the boards and convert several shots from the paint. Entzminger finally scored on a fast break layup and Ralph added a put back and a jumper for a 50-45 Colfax advantage. Six Bulldog points with four by Halama put them back on top 51-50, but Yarrington changed the lead again as he canned his third triple of the game. Fischer converted two free throws for a 54-51 Viking lead with 1:55 left in the game but Halama knotted it up with a

shot from behind the arc. Entzminger drove through the land of the giants for a 56-54 lead, but Kaiser showed why he was a first-team all conference fullback and defensive lineman by pounding his way to the hoop for another tie at 56-56. With .23 seconds left, the Vikings turned the ball over, and Boyceville did not get a final shot off, sending the game into overtime.

Bulldog Braden Roemhild picked a great time to score his first points of the game on a drive through the lane, but Entzminger countered with a jump shot. Kaiser drained a pair of free tosses and Fischer knocked down a very timely three point shot for a 61-60 Viking advantage. The lead changed again however, as Olson scored from the paint, but Entzminger connected on two free tosses with 1:13 left. 

Colfax stole the ball on a pass intended for Kaiser and a foul by the Bulldogs allowed Fischer to go to the charity stripe. He calmly dropped in both free throws and the Vikings used a stifling defense to shut the Bulldogs down in the last 13 seconds to preserve the win.

Four Vikings finished in double figures in the scoring department including Entzminger with 20, Ralph with a career high 15, Fischer added 14 and Yarrington 11 which was his career high. Colfax connected on eight triples, four in each half and were 11-for-14 from the foul line.

Kaiser finished with a team high 19 points for Boyceville while Halama tacked on 16 and Olson 15. After hitting six treys in the first half, they had just one the rest of the game and were 5-for-9 at the charity stripe.

Spring Valley

The final score was not an indication of how close the game was for most of the night. Colfax was down by two points at 47-45 with around six minutes to play but turnovers that led to Cardinal layups along with ten possessions in which they could not get the ball in the basket allowed the Cardinals to finish out the game on a 12-point run resulting in the 14-point win.

“Spring Valley is a good team and they executed better than us tonight,” Colfax coach Mark Noll said.”But we are getting better by each game,” he added.

Colfax fell behind 11-8 early on but Entzminger scored on a drive and Fischer drained a trey from the corner to draw closer. With help by their fourth triple of the half, Spring Valley jumped ahead 22-15. Entzminger knocked down a short jumper while Johnson scored in the paint and Nichols hit from close range to keep the Vikings close, down 24-21. Five straight possessions without Colfax scoring any points allowed the Cardinals to go up 27-21 before Ralph hit a jump shot and Fischer scored on an inbounds pass to get back to a two-point deficit. A fast break layup on a Viking turnover allowed the Cardinals to score but that was countered by Ralph’s put back and it was 29-27 for Spring Valley at the half.

Two minutes into the second half, Johnson drilled a three pointer to give the Vikings a 30-29 lead. It didn’t last long however, as Masyn Wolf, another solid football player much like Kaiser from Boyceville, began to control the boards and had three shot attempts before getting fouled. He hit a free throw and seconds later, Cade Stasiek dropped in another freebie for a 31-30 lead which they did not relinquish.

Colfax fell behind by as much as ten points at 42-32 but had enough fight in them to make a comeback when Fischer and Entzminger canned back-to-back triples and Entzminger added a shot from the paint to get the score to 45-40. Fischer nailed a pair of free tosses and a long three-point shot while the Cardinals added a bucket which brought them to the 47-45 score, and as mentioned earlier, it was all downhill from there for Colfax.

Fischer was the high scorer for the Vikings with 17 points while Entzminger added 15. In a physical contest where not a lot of fouls were called in the Vikings favor, the Vikings were just 2-for-3 from the charity stripe with five made triples. Stasiek, the Cardinal’s leading scorer, hit his average of 13 points and Wolf matched him with 13 himself. The team knocked down seven treys and were 6-for-15 at the foul line with Wolf making 5-of-10.