Colfax boys drop back to back games against Amery, Spring Valley
Struggling to get the ball in the basket resulted in a 58-43 loss for the Colfax boys’ basketball team against Amery in the first of two home games last week. And despite five players combining to make 14 three point shots, it still wasn’t enough to pull out a win over Spring Valley as the Vikings lost the conference match up 72-64. It was the third consecutive loss for Colfax and brings their record to 2-5 overall and 2-2 in conference play.
Amery
After playing their first six games on the road before the holiday break, the Vikings were finally able to play at home Jan. 5. But the home court wasn’t much of an advantage as the Colfax boys couldn’t find the hoop on a consistent basis or snare many rebounds throughout the contest. All told, the Vikings came up empty on 16 possessions in the first half but the Warriors were also struggling in the shooting department which allowed Colfax to stay within striking distance.
Amery went up 4-0 before Andrew Harmon put Colfax on the scoreboard with a three point shot four minutes into the game. Kedar Davis connected for his own triple to make it 6-6 but after a six point run by the Warriors, they held a lead the rest of the contest.
After falling behind 15-7, Aliymu Davis drained a triple for Colfax and Kedar Davis scored on a drive but in between Amery scored twice on offensive rebounds. Issac Lee and Alex Knudson both hit from behind the arc to spark the Vikings. Cutting a nine point deficit to three at 21-18 and after another Amery bucket on a put back, Harmon countered with a baseline drive. Freshman George Scharlau hit a short jumper to get the Vikings within a point down 23-22 but a trey by the Warriors upped their lead again. Kedar Davis then canned his second triple and with the Vikings down 28-25, they had the ball for the final 20 seconds with a chance to tie the game or come within a point but misfired on two shots to end the half.
“We gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the half and that really hurt us,” Colfax coach Garrett Maas said.
The Vikings were down by seven early in the second half but went on a six point run with Jacob Larson hitting from underneath and Aliymu Davis scoring on a drive and a layup off a steal to get the Vikings to within a point again at 32-31. But they just couldn’t get over the hump as they came up empty on their next three possessions allowing Amery to go back up 39-31. Knudson came up with a big triple but they couldn’t score twice in a row to keep any momentum going and Amery slowly began to pull away. Brett Prince scored his only points of the game on a floater in the lane to make it a two possession game at 43-37 with nine minutes left but it was almost two minutes later before Harmon hit another triple to keep Colfax close, down 45-40. The Vikings missed on several three point attempts however and the deficit grew to 16 rather quickly at 56-40 and a final trey by Knudson finished off the 15 point loss.
“We didn’t shoot very well throughout the game and Amery came around the second half and shot better,” Maas said.
The Vikings scored 27 of their points on shots from behind the arc while Amery hit 21 shots in the paint for 42 of their points. Free throw shooting wasn’t much of an issue as the Vikings only went to the line twice hitting 2 of 4 while the Warriors were 4 of 7. Knudson had a career high nine points for Colfax and Harmon also scored nine.
AMERY (58) B. Helin 7-2-2-17, S. Amundson 4-2-4-12, B. Schulte 5-0-0-10, R. Walz 4-0-0-9, C. McBrayer 3-0-0-6, P. Elwood 2-0-1-4
COLFAX (43) Knudson 3-0-0-9, Harmon 3-1-2-9, K. Davis 3-0-0-8, A. Davis 3-0-0-7, Lee 1-0-0-3, Larson 1-1-2-3, Prince 1-0-0-2, Scharlau 1-0-0-2
THREE POINTERS: Knudson 3, Harmon 2, K. Davis 2, Amundson 2, A, Davis 1, Lee 1, Helin 1, Walz 1
Spring Valley
It was pretty much the same story when it came to scoring for the Vikings with 42 of their points coming from long range shots while the Cardinals scored 54 of theirs from under the bucket or from the foul line. With senior Jarrod Rudi out for several more weeks with an injury, his presence under the basket has been sorely missed and the Colfax team is still trying to get the right combination on the floor to make up the difference.
Things were looking pretty good offensively early in the game after Kedar Davis swiped the ball and scored on a layup, Larson added an old fashioned three point play, Aliymu Davis nailed a triple and Prince scored on a back door pass from Aliymu Davis but with the Cardinals countering each time it was 11-11. Kedar Davis came up with a spectacular save in mid-air to keep the ball from going out of bounds and had the presence of mind to find an open Larson in the process who hit from close range, and Prince dropped in a floater but again the Cardinals were finding the hoop themselves. Spring Valley went up 25-15 before Aliymu Davis canned another trey and a minute later Knudson drained his own. Aliymu Davis came back after a Cardinal deuce to knock down his third triple to cut the deficit to 29-24 but Spring Valley went on a seven point run and the half ended with the Vikings in a hole, down 36-24.
“We had 15 turnovers in the half and gave up seven offensive rebounds,” coach Maas said. “Playing against their zone defense we settled for too many long shots instead of attacking them. It’s hard to make up points if you rely on just making three pointers.”
Spring Valley upped their lead to 40-24 before Harmon put a whole new meaning to “lighting a spark” for the team. Harmon drilled a triple from the corner and after Kedar Davis hit a pair of technical foul free throws, Harmon nailed three more triples in a span of about three minutes to get the Vikings back to a 12 point deficit at 52-38. It was then Aliymu Davis’ time to light things up as he hit a short jumper, a pair of free throws and a spinning shot in the lane to Colfax back to within eight points, down 52-44. Colfax committed their seventh team foul with 7:30 to go however, which allowed the Cardinals to frequent the charity stripe quite often as the game went on.
The Vikings weren’t ready to cave in however as Prince knocked down a shot from behind the arc, then pulled down an offensive rebound and zipped a pass to Kedar Davis who added his own trey, and after Aliymu Davis stole the ball and scored on a drive, it was a whole new ball game with Colfax down 55-52 with 4:50 left. But the Vikings must have felt the temperature dropping outside as they went cold and misfired on shots on four consecutive possessions before Prince knocked down his second trey with just over 2:00 left. It was still a two possession game at 61-55 but the Cardinals scored on a transition basket and a pair of free tosses before Lee hit his first trey of the game for Colfax. Four different Cardinals went to the foul line after that to hit 7 of 8 free throws and although Aliymu Davis and Knudson both added a triple, it was too little, too late.
“We took care of the ball much better in the second half with only one turnover,” Maas said. “But again, we had some mental lapses on defense and couldn’t stop their big guy (Sean Borgerding). But it was a much better effort on our part than the Ellsworth game and we can fix the problems we need to work on,” he added.
Aliymu Davis led the Vikings with 20 points while Harmon added 12. Borgerding was high man for the Cardinals with 24 points while another coaches kid, Dylan Bosshart added 13. Colfax was 6 for 7 from the foul line while Spring Valley went 16 for 23.
SPRING VALLEY (72) Borgerding 10-2-5-24, Bossart 4-4-4-13,P. Cipriano 3-4-4-12, B. Klatt 2-1-2-5, T. Kado 1-3-3-5, D. Larson 2-0-1-4, Z. Boisen 1-1-2-4, N. Kalmes 2-0-0-4
COLFAX (64) A. Davis 7-2-3-20, Harmon 4-0-0-12, Prince 4-0-0-12, K. Davis 2-3-3-8, Knudson 2-0-0-6, Larson 2-1-1-5, Lee 1-0-0-3
THREE POINTERS: A. Davis 4, Harmon 4, Prince 2, Knudson 2, Borgerding 2, Cipriano 2, Lee 1, K. Davis 1, Boisen 1