Colfax girls’ basketball team ends regular season with pair of losses
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CLARA Hydukovich of Colfax (#44) attempted to find an open teammate against a stingy Fall Creek defense in the game played February 16 in Colfax. —photo by Allie Petznick
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
As they head into the WIAA regional tournament this week, the Colfax girls played two very strong teams, hoping the good competition would help them prepare for it. After dropping a home game to Fall Creek February 17 by a score of 60-42, they traveled south to finish off their regular season, and Dunn-St. Croix Conference season, against Durand-Arkansaw where things didn’t get much better as they lost to the Panthers 52-28.
Colfax (15-8) finished tied for third with Mondovi in the conference at 9-4 while the Panthers were 11-2 with their two losses to conference champions Elk Mound. A Colfax game scheduled for Saturday night at Prescott was canceled.
Colfax is a number four seed in the Division 4 regional, receiving a first round bye and will play the winner of the Clear Lake versus Cumberland game at home this Friday night at 7:00. The winner of that game will play Saturday night in the regional championship.
Fall Creek
The Crickets have been ranked in the top 10 in Division 4 according to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association most of the season and were ninth when the game began.
Colfax lost back in December 67-54 to the Crickets and they kept this game close until midway through the first half, but their defense was unable to stop Jasmin Heuer who scored 16 points in the half and Sophie Schmidgall added 12, allowing the Crickets to hold a 37-21 halftime lead.
Sierra Shipman and Clara Hydukovich started the scoring for Colfax with shots in the paint and Jordyn Bowe added two layups but they were still behind 9-8. Bowe drilled a triple and scored on a drive, but the Crickets canned their second three pointer and still led 18-13.
After a Bowe free toss, turnovers plagued the Vikings as they gave the ball away three straight times before Bowe canned another triple then scored on yet another drive, but Hydukovich picked up the only other Viking points with a bucket underneath. Fall Creek added a third three pointer to end the first half.
Bowe started the second half with a pair of free throws, Shipman sank a triple and Brynn Sikora scored on a jumper but the Crickets continued to pound the paint and pulled out to a 48-28 advantage before Bowe added another deuce. Sikora added a triple and Bowe was unstoppable as she drove to the hoop again, but after Hydukovich scored from close range, the Vikings still trailed 55-37. It was all free throws the rest of the game as Bowe dropped one in, Shipman three and Lyric Nichols one.
Bowe led the Vikings with 22 points while Shipman added eight. Sikora picked up seven rebounds with three assists. Colfax made 8-of-15 free throws and 4-of-13 three point shots.
Heuer led the Crickets with 24 points while Schmidgall added 16. Fall Creek hit a trio of triples, all in the first half and were just 1-for-4 at the foul line.
Durand-Arkansaw
For the second time this season, the Vikings struggled to score points against the Panthers. After losing 53-33 back in January, they had to work hard to get their 28 points this time around.
Much like the Fall Creek game, Durand started off hot from long range with a trio of triples in the first three minutes. Sikora managed to keep her team in the game with three buckets in the paint and after Bowe dribbled end to end for a layup, they were down just 13-8.
But it took 11 possessions before the Vikings would score again. Turnovers caused by the overly aggressive Panther defense as they tried to get the ball inside, along with three shot attempts from long range that were off the mark allowed the Panthers to pull ahead with several shots in the paint 22-8.
Shipman managed to drill a triple and Hydukovich dropped in a shot under the hoop but the Vikings trailed at the half 26-13.
Nichols drained a three pointer early in the second half while Sikora added her own triple but the Panthers were pounding the paint once again and scored eight points. Sikora dropped in two free throws but from there on out, points were hard to come by for the Vikings. The Panthers upped their advantage to 48-21 before Bowe hit a free throw and Hydukovich scored in the lane, and Bowe completed the Viking scoring with a couple of layups.
Sikora led the Vikings with eight points with seven from Bowe and six by Shipman. Colfax made three shots from long range and were 3-for-8 from the foul line.
Emma Hoyt scored 16 points for the Panthers while her teammate Sawyer Sabelko added 14 which included four triples. The Panthers totaled six treys and were 4-for-11 from the charity stripe.