Lady Vikings take trio of Dunn-St. Croix games, putting them in second place

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by Marlys Krueger

Sports Correspondent

The Colfax girls had to battle back from a four-point halftime deficit before pulling out a 52-45 road win over Mondovi January 22. It was a makeup game from the week before and it gave the Vikings a heavy schedule for the week as they hosted Boyceville 24 hours later. The Bulldogs have been playing some pretty good ball this season but the Vikings earned a 59-40 win. The Vikings played their third game of the week on the road at Spring Valley three days later and  defeated the Cardinals 57-32. All of the games were Dunn-St. Croix Conference games, giving the Vikings an 8-2 conference record as they travel to Elk Mound this Thursday night.

Mondovi

The Buffaloes were sitting in the middle of the D-SC Conference with a 4-3 record and were 10-6 overall. They may have caught the Vikings off guard on this cold Monday night with their leading scorer Ava Gray connected for 13 points in the first half. McKenna Shipman tried to counter with 11 points of her own while Brynn Sikora drilled a three pointer, Jeanette Hydukovich added a bucket and two free tosses, Sierra Shipman scored three points on a deuce and a free throw and Jada Anderson scored in the paint. 

All the Viking shots seemed to be countered as they played from behind the whole first half, and they went to the locker room down 27-23.

Colfax outscored Mondovi 29-18 in the second half with their defense shutting Gray down. Gray was held to just six free throw attempts, making five of them but did not score from the floor.

McKenna Shipman came up with seven points on three shots in the paint and a free toss to lead the Vikings with 18 points. Kaysen Goodell scored all eight of her points on a trio of buckets and a pair of free tosses, Sikora knocked down 4-of-6 shots from the foul line to finish with seven points while Sierra Shipman and Hydukovich both added six points to go with five by Anderson and two from Autumn Niggemann.

The Vikings were 11-for-21 from the free throw line and 3-for-12 from shots behind the arc. Sikora collected eight rebounds, Hydukovich picked up six steals and Goodell added three steals and three rebounds..

Mondovi was led by Gray with 18 points and the Buffaloes connected on 10-of-18 free tosses with 3-of-18 triples. 

Boyceville 

As we all know, in the world of sports (professional and high school), injuries occur unexpectedly forcing coaches and players to make adjustments. During team warm-ups, McKenna Shipman, the Vikings leading scorer and rebounder stepped on a teammate’s foot and twisted her ankle. She sat on the bench the whole game but her Colfax teammates all stepped up to pull off the big win.

The Vikings jumped off to a 14-1 advantage starting with a Goodell steal and layup. Hydukovich hit a jumper, Niggemann canned a triple and followed with a shot in the paint, Goodell swooped like a hawk for another take away and a bucket and Hydukovich scored from close up again. The only point the Bulldogs came up with was a free throw by Sarah Stoveren early in the streak.

After Boyceville’s Aubrey Malean sank a bucket, Meadow Keltner found her range with back to back triples for a 20-6 lead while Hannah Dunn connected for the Bulldogs from behind the arc. Anderson dropped in a close range shot and Sierra Shipman added two deuces to make it 27-8 but Dunn was doing her best to keep the Bulldogs in the game with three more long balls in a span of a few minutes. Niggemann countered with one of her own and after a close range shot by Sierra Shipman, a triple from Jordyn Bowe and a Sikora bucket, the Vikings carried a 37-18 halftime lead into the locker room

Cold shooting by both teams early in the second half didn’t produce a lot of points early on but the Vikings managed to pull ahead 42-23. Five Bulldogs points cut the Colfax lead down before Keltner drained a pair of free tosses, Sierra Shipman canned one of her own and Jaycey Bowe netted two more freebies. Jordyn Bowe scored on a fast break layup to put the Vikings up by 20 points at 51-31 before Dunn broke the streak with two free throws.

Colfax committed their seventh team  foul with around nine minutes left and their tenth with close to three minutes to go allowing Boyceville to visit the free throw line several times, but it wasn’t enough to gain on the Vikings. Niggemann drained another trey, Sikora dropped in a deuce and with reserves in the final few minutes for Colfax, Leila Hurlburt nailed a shot from behind the arc to finish off the Viking scoring.

For the first time in her varsity career, Niggemann was the leading scorer for the Vikings with 11 points which included 3-of-4 triples. Shipman added nine points with five rebounds and three assists, Keltner picked up eight points on a pair of treys and free tosses each while Goodell added seven points with three of the Vikings 12 steals in the game. Hydukovich scored just four points but ended up with six rebounds and six assists. The Vikings were 8-for-10 from the charity stripe and 7-of-17 from behind the arc. They turned the ball over just five times in the contest.

Dunn led the Bulldogs with 17 points which included four of the team’s six triples. The Bulldogs were 14-for-21 from the foul line but committed several turnovers in the contest.

Spring Valley 

The beginning of the game appeared it might be another blowout, much like when they faced each other back in December ending with a 66-16 Viking win. Colfax started this game off with a 20-2 lead and pulled ahead for a 32-11 halftime advantage.

The Cardinals managed to put twice as many points on the board as the first go around, but the Vikings,playing without McKenna Shipman once again, had enough players score and play solid defense to bring a win home.

Sierra Shipman took over the top scoring honors with 14 points which included a couple of treys, while grabbing five rebounds. Hydukovich put up 13 points with four rebounds, four blocked shots and four steals, Sikora came up with eight points and three steals while Niggemann added seven points with four rebounds. Colfax was 6-for-18 on long range shots and 3-for-6 from the foul line. The team collected 15 steals with 17 assists.