Colfax girls’ crush Spring Valley Cardinals, rocked by Hudson Raiders
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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
After cruising to their second Dunn-St. Croix Conference win in a row with a convincing 66-16 win over the Spring Valley Cardinals at home December 14, the Colfax girls traveled to Hudson two days later for a big change of pace when they took on the Raiders and lost 69-48.
Colfax will host rival and unbeaten Elk Mound in a key, early-season Dunn-St. Croix clash this Thursday. The Vikings will then break for the holidays, returning in the new year with a non-conference game at St. Croix Central on January 2.
Spring Valley
The Cardinals were 2-0 in conference play and 2-5 overall but were no match for the Lady Vikings. McKenna Shipman scored eight of the first 12 Viking points, starting the night off with a three point shot, hitting a jumper and nailing another triple. In between those shots, Kaysen Goodell scored on a drive to the hoop and Brynn Sikora added a fast break deuce. After Sikora drained a triple it was 15-5 for Colfax and they continued to add to the score book while holding the Cardinals to just three more points before the half ended.
Four more Vikings added points in the first half including Sierra Shipman on a close range shot, Jeanette Hydukovich with a pair of free throws, Sierra Shipman from the paint and Jordyn Bowe in the lane to increase the score to 27-5. McKenna Shipman drilled another three-point shot while Bowe had an old-fashioned three-point play with a bucket and the free throw and a final free toss from Goodell made it 34-8 at the intermission.
Colfax worked on getting the ball inside to start the second half with Hydukovich connecting on three shots in the lane while McKenna Shipman scored on a putback for a 42-9 advantage. They continued to work in the paint as the next six Viking buckets all came from close range, starting on a Bowe fast break layup, followed by a Sierra Shipman put back, along with shots by Sikora, Goodell, Sierra Shipman again, and Hydukovich to make it 54-12. Meadow Keltner canned a triple for the Vikings and with the large score difference, a running clock started with around eight minutes to go.
The Vikings finished off the scoring with shots from Sierra Shipman and Goodell along with two free tosses from Sierra Shipman, and the last two points were from Leila Hurlburt.
Defense was a key to the Viking win as they held the Cardinals leading scorer Mara Ducklow down all night. With Anderson guarding her most of the game, Ducklow, who has been averaging 14 points a game, was held to just one made free throw. The Viking press early in the game forced several turnovers by Spring Valley and allowed them to score several points off fast breaks.
McKenna Shipman led the Vikings with 15 points while Sierra Shipman tacked on 11, Hydukovich ten, Goodell nine and both Sikora and Bowe both added on seven. Autumn Niggemann, Anderson, Sikora and Hydukovich all collected five rebounds and Goodell, Anderson and the Shipman sisters all picked up three assists. Colfax was 9-10 at the charity stripe and went 5-for-17 from shots beyond the arc. Spring Valley made two treys and were 4-for-7 from the foul line.
Hudson
Taking on the Division 1 Raiders who have an enrollment of 1,800 students turned out to be a pretty tough task for the Division 4 Vikings. Hudson was 6-2 overall and 4-0 in Big Rivers Conference play and boasted some pretty tall players that filled the paint most of the game.
Colfax fell behind 17-6 early on and never seemed to recover. Goodell scored in the lane, McKenna Shipman scored on a put back and Goodell found an open spot two more times but the Vikings were down 24-14.
Goodell was fouled on another drive to the hoop and knocked down two free tosses and Jordyn Bowe hit a jumper, but the Raiders dominated under the basket and used an eight-point run for a 37-18 halftime lead.
Keltner slid under the radar and scored on a bucket in the lane and Bowe drilled a three-point shot but the Vikings were still behind 42-23. Goodell had probably the best two minute span in her varsity career when she scored eight consecutive points. After scoring from close range, she swiped the ball and drove end-to-end for a layup. She followed that up with a bucket on a put back and another shot in the paint to draw the Vikings closer, down 43-31 with just over ten minutes left in the game.
Goodell assisted Hydukovich on a deuce and Hydukovich added two free throws and another basket with Goodell scoring once again from the paint. But, the Colfax defense couldn’t stop the Raiders who consistently were scoring around the basket, eventually moving out to a 56-41 advantage with five minutes left. Goodell knocked down another shot for her 20th and final points of the game and Autumn Niggemann scored from close range. Keltner ended the Viking scoring with a long three pointer.
Ella Carstenson led the Raiders with 20 points and her team made 13-of-14 free throws along with six triples.