Colfax boys pick up pair of conference wins over Glenwood City and Mondovi
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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
Playing a pair of teams in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, the Viking boys’ basketball team picked up two wins, starting with a 65-45 win at Glenwood City February 18, then ending their week with another road win against Mondovi 51-47 three days later.
With those victories, Colfax improved to 9-5 in conference, good for a third-place tie with Mondovi, and 15-8 in all games. The Vikings played at Fall Creek Monday and will close out their regular and conference seasons at D-SC co-leader Durand-Arkansaw on Thursday.
Colfax was awarded the eighth seed in the top half of the WIAA Division 4 Eau Claire North sectional bracket and will host #9 Shell Lake in next Tuesday’s, March 4, regional opener.
Glenwood City
The Vikings defeated the Hilltoppers earlier in the season by a much closer 68-62 score and this game appeared it would be tight again.
Brody Olson started the Hilltoppers off with a triple, and after Aiden Fischer dropped in a free throw for Colfax, Brody Riba scored in the paint for a 5-1 Glenwood City lead.
Fischer was a thorn in the Hilltoppers side all night as he scored the next nine points for Colfax, but during that stretch, Riba scored five more points on a bucket and a triple, Olson sank a pair of free throws, Ben Klatt scored in the paint and added two free tosses for a 16-10 Hilltopper lead.
Charlie Charbonneau scored from close range for the Vikings which was countered by Olson’s bucket, but a Fischer shot from behind the arc along with a bucket under the hoop by Logan Swartz brought the Vikings closer, down 18-17, and when Theo Hovde zipped a pass to Swartz for a reverse layup, the Vikings pulled ahead 19-18. Trey Larson drained a triple and followed up with a shot in the paint to up the Viking lead to 24-18 before a couple of Riba free throws stopped the run.
Russell Polkoski canned a three ball for Colfax while Brady Thompson knocked down a free toss for the Hilltoppers, but the biggest play of the half occurred in the next 30 seconds. Colfax had the ball, and in trying to get a final shot under the hoop, Larson ended up on the floor and Olson snared the ball and found Riba who ended up scoring on a layup to cut the Vikings lead to 27-23. But, there were still 5.5 seconds on the clock, allowing Colfax coach Nick Heit to call a timeout to set up a play. Hovde took the inbounds pass way down on the Vikings’ side of the court and proceeded to dribble the ball through all of the Glenwood City defenders and scored on a layup and was fouled on the play. He made the free throw which ended the half with Colfax up 30-23.
When asked if that was how the play was drawn up, Heit commented:
“Yes, it was, we had a guy sprint to the opposite corner and had a ball screen/back screen for a kick back if Theo needed it,” he said.
The Viking defense began to shine as they made the Hilltoppers work hard to get any where near the hoop while the offense used a 14-point run to pull ahead 44-23.
Charbonneau drilled a three pointer and hit a layup, Hovde added another and-one with a bucket and free toss,Polkoski dropped in two free throws from a technical foul on the Hilltoppers and added a shot on a put back and Fischer finished off the streak with two free throws.
Riba found the basket to stop the bleeding, but when Swartz scored on another offensive rebound it was a 20-point Colfax advantage at 46-26.
The Vikings continued to score in the lane and from the charity stripe with Polkoski scoring on three buckets with a pair of free tosses, Fischer drained two shots from the foul line and Swartz scored on a turnaround jumper and it was 59-34 before Brady Thompson scored in the paint for Glenwood City.
After Polkoski scored from close range, Orion Nichols canned a three pointer to end the Viking scoring as their reserves came in with just over a minute left.
Tyler Harrington scored on a couple of deuces while Mitchel Main finished the scoring for Glenwood City with a long three pointer.
Fischer scored 18 points for the Vikings while Polkoski was right behind him with 17. Colfax was successful on 10-of-12 free throws with six triples in the contest.
Riba led the Hilltoppers with 17 while their leading scorer Olson, who averages 18 points a game, was held to just seven with Polkoski guarding him most of the night. Glenwood City knocked down 8-of-12 free throws and canned five treys.
Mondovi
It was the second time in 10 days the two teams met with the Vikings coming out with a 62-52 win at home back on February 11.
Although Mondovi has struggled in the win-lost column with a 3-19 overall record and 1-11 conference record when they hosted the Vikings, they have always been a scrappy team and have given most of their competition a tough battle.
Mondovi led 5-0 before Polkoski scored in the paint and Charbonneau sank a triple to knot it up. Colfax fell behind once again, 16-10, but points were far and few in between for the Vikings before Nichols picked up a deuce, and after falling behind 18-12, Larson drained a three-point shot. After four empty possessions, Larson drilled his second triple and a couple of minutes later, Larson scored on a jump shot, leaving the Vikings down 22-20 at the half. All told, Colfax committed 12 turnovers in the first 18 minutes.
Hovde started the second half with a quick layup and for the next six minutes, the teams battled back-and-forth scoring points with neither team leading by more than three.
When Colfax went up 30-27 after another Hovde layup, a Viking turnover led to a Buffalo bucket and free throw for a 30-30 tie. Nichols and Larson both scored in the lane and after Hovde knocked down a free throw, Colfax led 35-32.
The Viking offense finally woke up as they rattled off eight more points with shots in the paint by Hovde, Polkoski, Nichols and Fischer extending their lead to 43-32 with 2:25 left in the game.
A pair of free throws by Mondovi stopped the streak, but Polkoski took a long pass and dunked the ball, while the Buffaloes drained a three pointer. Nichols tacked on another deuce, but yet another Mondovi trey and two free throws suddenly cut the Viking advantage to 47-45 with .36 seconds left.
There had been plenty of fouls by both teams during the half and Nichols and Polkoski ended up at the charity stripe where they both calmly drained a pair of free tosses. After the Buffaloes were off the mark on a three-point attempt they made two free throws before the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Nichols led the Vikings with 14 points while Polkoski and Larson both added 10 points.
Bode Falkner, who averages eight points a game for Mondovi, scored 17 to lead his team.