Colfax boys whomped by Wausau East, stampede Mondovi Buffaloes

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by Marlys Kruger

Sports Correspondent

The competition in the two games the Colfax boys’ basketball team played last week was like night and day, starting with a 72-31 loss to the Division 2 Wausau East Lumberjacks February 19 in Wausau. Just three days later, they hosted the Mondovi Buffaloes who were 2-21 overall and in last place in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference. Colfax started slow but eventually came away with a 68-52 win, finishing their conference season tied for fourth place with a 6-8 record.

The Vikings head into WIAA Regional play as a number 10 seed and traveled to Shell Lake, who is the number seven seed, Tuesday night.

Wausau East

There may be a lot of Division 2 teams around the state the D4 Vikings are capable of beating but the Lumberjacks were certainly not one of them. With a school enrollment four times as big as Colfax, they were in second place in the Wisconsin Valley Conference which includes all D1 and D2 schools, and they were a number one seed in their sectional with a 16-6 record. They were very capable of scoring a lot of points having reached the 100-point mark twice this season and the 90-point range in three contests.

The Vikings took the long bus ride in hopes of beating the odds and maybe coming out with a David vs. Goliath finish. It didn’t start very well for them as they fell behind 13-0 when they missed their first five shot attempts. But they methodically climbed back with a nine-point run, starting with Orion Nichols coming off the bench for a bucket in the paint. Theo Hovde, also a non-starter, pulled down a defensive rebound and found a streaking Blake Johnson down the court for a layup. Johnson drilled a triple and Logan Swartz, another backup player  took a Hovde assist for a shot near the hoop to get within six points of the Jacks. 

Aiden Fischer scored in the paint but the Vikings couldn’t connect on a few more shots while the Jacks pulled ahead 21-11. Colfax continued to plug away when Swartz hit from under the hoop, Mason Yarrington canned a trey, and Elijah Entzminger scored his only two points of the game which helped cut the deficit to 23-18. After Johnson scored from close up, the Vikings were down 25-20 with 90 seconds left in the half. The Jacks scored the next 10 points which included three free throws when their player was fouled on a three point attempt just before the buzzer went off and it was 35-20 in their favor at the intermission.

East upped their lead to 41-20 before Johnson hit a bucket but the Vikings wasted a lot of opportunities that could have produced more points. Swartz finally added another deuce but it was a long time before they would increase their score. Eli Ralph rebounded his own shot twice and was eventually fouled, but after dropping in two free throws, they were behind 60-26. Swartz added his eighth point of the game on a deuce, Nichols hit a free toss and Fischer finished off the Colfax scoring with a pair of free throws.

Johnson led the Vikings with nine points while Swartz tacked on eight. Colfax connected on just 5-of-13 free throws with a pair of treys. Jayden Garrett scored 15 points for the Jacks as the Vikings kept their leading scorer Jesse Napgezek below his 18 point average with just nine points. East drilled seven triples and were 9-for-14 at the charity stripe.

Mondovi

It was senior night for four of the Vikings and another slow start for the team allowed the Buffaloes to begin the game with five straight points after Colfax came up empty on their first eight possessions. Swartz broke the ice with a putback five and a half minutes into the game, Fischer drained a triple and a few seconds later another putback by Swartz after a Colfax steal made it 7-5 for the Vikings. Fischer swiped the ball off the Viking’s trap press and added a layup but the Buffaloes knotted the score at 9-9 before senior Yarrington found his range for a triple.

Mondovi regained the lead at 16-12 but senior Entzminger re-defined the meaning of hot shooting as he drilled three triples in a matter of a couple of minutes, and in between two of those shots, he swiped the ball and whipped a pass down court to Hovde for a layup. Yarrington dropped in a free toss and a fast break bucket by Entzminger made it 26-17 in the Vikings favor. Colfax was struggling with fouls however, as they committed their tenth  with a minute left and a pair of Buffalo freebies with a three-point shot cut the Colfax halftime lead to 26-22.

Yarrington sparked the offense as he canned a trey just 10 seconds into the second half, Johnson, another senior, added his own trey, fellow senior Ralph added points on a put back, Entzminger canned a  jumper and Yarrington drilled another three pointer to put the Vikings up 39-28. After Yarrington’s third, three banger of the half, Entzminger scored on a long deuce to make it 45-34. But the well went dry for a long time once again as the Vikings failed to get the ball in the hoop on seven possessions. Fischer eventually connected from long range and short range  but Mondovi was tallying points themselves and shortened the Viking advantage to 50-44 with around five minutes to go.

Entzminger used his quickness for a layup and a free toss and after Fischer blocked a Mondovi shot, Entzminger scored on yet another layup. The three point shots were still flying for the Vikings as Fischer, Johnson and Yarrington all connected in the last few minutes. Mondovi went to the charity stripe plenty of times during that time but could not add many points and Nate Edwards put the final touches on the score with a bucket.

All told, the Vikings drained 13 triples in the contest with Yarrington connecting five times with one free throw for 16 points. Entzminger tacked on three treys and finished with 22 points, Fischer added 13 points with a trio of triples and Johnson picked up a pair of treys and a free throw for seven points. Colfax made 3-of-5 free throws in the contest.

Austin Remington finished with 18 points in the game to lead Mondovi. Buffalo head coach Sarah Brenner (Hughes), former standout player from Colfax, may want her players to work on their free throws before they begin regional play as they were just 9-for-30 in the contest and made three triples.