Bulldog boys drop two more games as winless streak grows to four straight

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Looking to reset after back-to-back loses the previous week, the Boyceville boys’ basketball team hoped to bounce back against two conference foes.

While the Bulldogs fought hard in a nail bitter in its first contest against Colfax, they got rolled over by an Elk Mound squad to conclude the week and remain winless in D-SC play.

Boyceville will have the week off before resuming play on December 28 with a home contest against Elk Mound (5-1, 2-1).

They travel to Minneapolis the next day for a non-conference contest against Webster. The game will be played at the Target Center is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.

Colfax

Boyceville hosted Colfax on December 12 and while they led at halftime, Colfax rallied in the second half to pull out the 65-62 win in overtime.

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.

Elk Mound

The Bulldogs wrapped up the week with a road game against the Mounders.  Boyceville fell behind early and couldn’t recover as the Mounders rolled to the 90-48 win. 

Boyceville was done in by a  hot-shooting Mounder team in a December 15 contest played in Elk Mound.

Elk Mound nailed 17 of its 34 three-point shots and nearly 54 percent of all its attempts to rout the visiting Boyceville Bulldogs 90-48.

The Bulldogs, who many picked to challenge for the Dunn-St. Croix crown this season, were no match for the Mounders.

Elk Mound dominated the contest from the opening tip to the final horn as ten players scored in the contest and three finished in double figures.

Elk Mound led by 30 points at the intermission, 52 to 22, and went on to outscore Boyceville in the second half as well, 38 to 26, to claim the 42-point win.

No individual or team statistics were available for the Bulldogs when the Tribune Press Reporter went to press Tuesday morning.

Cale Knutson led the Mounder offensive splurge with 21 points, Kaden Russo added 19 points and Grandt Mueller finished the game with 15 points.