Vikings fall to Regis Ramblers, bounce back with second win over Mondovi Buffaloes

Facing their old nemesis, the Eau Claire Regis Ramblers in a game at home Jan. 19, the Colfax girls hung with the state ranked Ramblers for over half of the game before dropping the contest 63-42. But two days later, the second round of conference play began and the Vikings took care of Mondovi for the second time this year, winning by a score of 60-20.

Regis

The Ramblers are ranked ninth in Division 3 in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association poll and boast a pair of six foot players including junior Hannah Anderson, and senior Shea Brey who will play for Butler, a Division 1 college next year,

But the Ramblers have a lot of fire power throughout the whole lineup and entered the game scoring 80 or more points in the previous seven games under coach Patrick Boughton who happens to be a Colfax graduate. That being said, the Vikings managed to keep them under that 80 point mark and held their two leading scorers, Amber Darge and Brey in check for the most part.

Savannah Henricks put Colfax up 1-0 on a free throw and Dempsey Fogarty hit one herself but the Vikings were down 8-2. Henricks, just a freshman playing against the taller and more experience Rambler front line, put on a little show starting with an assist to Bryanna Buchanan for a bucket, a steal in the backcourt and her three point shot to close the gap at 8-7.

Ally Heidorn then put the Vikings back up on her first of four treys in the game but Regis went on a nine point run for a 17-10 advantage and the Vikings never led again.

Heidorn and Dempsey Fogarty both drained a trey and Heidorn added a free toss to keep Colfax within five at 22-17 and after a Henricks shot from the paint and Heidorn canning another trey, the deficit was cut to three at 25-22 which didn’t make coach Boughton very happy. After a little pep talk with his team, Regis scored the next seven points and held a 32-22 lead at the intermission.

“We were not hitting open shots and left a lot of points out there,” Boughton said. “Colfax may be down this year but with a coach like Joe  Doucette, they are never out of a game. We knew we had to be aggressive and keep the pressure on so they couldn’t get any good looks at the basket”.

Discovering it was getting more difficult to score from the lane, the Vikings began to launch three point shots in the second half, but just like the previous game against Glenwood City, they were not finding their mark very often. Missing on three consecutive attempts allowed Regis to go up 38-22 before Fogarty scored on a fast break.

Emma Hurlburt added a bucket from underneath the basket but the Vikings, after rebounding three of their own missed shots, couldn’t score and Regis came up with a trey a few seconds later for a 45-28 lead. Henricks added two more deuces with a Buchanan bucket in between to put the score at 52-33, and Heidorn nailed a deuce then shot over Brey for a triple. Buchanan finished off the Colfax scoring with a pair of free throws and a fast break layup at the buzzer.

“Regis is a big and talented team,” coach Doucette said. “For the most part, I was happy with the way we played. We had more effort and energy then we did in the Glenwood game. Heidorn had her best game of the year and hit some big shots to keep us close. I was impressed with the way Henricks  battled the taller Regis players and Buchanan had an overall good game. We rolled the dice and let some of the Regis players shoot and tonight they hit their shots. We  turned the ball over too many times but I feel this game was a step in the right direction,” he added.

Colfax didn’t help themselves when they made just 6 of 16 free throws and hit only six of their 23 three point attempts. Heidorn finished with 15 points while Henricks scored 10 points and had nine rebounds with a pair of blocked shots.

Fogarty collected 11 rebounds and had three steals and three assists while Buchanan came up with six rebounds and six points.

Brey and Darge both average 14 points a game but Brey was held to 11 and Darge five as Anderson led Regis with 15 points. The Ramblers were 11 of 15 from the charity stripe and six of 14 from three point land.

“Colfax may be having what some say is a down year but there are a lot of teams around here who would like to have their record,” Boughton said with a laugh. “They are over .500 and have played some good teams. They always hustle and give Regis a good game.”

REGIS (63) Anderson 6-3-3-15, L. Shinners 4-2-2-12, Brey 5-1-2-11, H. Gibbons 2-3-4-8, Darge 2-1-2-5, K. Seyer 1-1-2-4, C. Sabbagh 1-0-0-3, T. Karlstad 1-0-0-3, K. Neff 1-0-0-2

COLFAX (42) Heidorn 5-1-2-15, Henricks 4-1-2-10, Fogarty 2-1-5-6, Buchanan 2-2-3-6, Hurlburt 1-1-2-3, M. Schleusner 1-0-2-2

THREE POINTERS: Heidorn 4, Shinners 2, Fogarty 1, Henricks 1, Gibbons 1, Sabbagh 1, Seyer 1, Karlstad 1.

Mondovi

Coach Doucette likes to say shooting is contagious which certainly proved true against the Buffaloes. For as often as the three pointers were not hitting their mark against Regis, the Vikings found the range early and often and had six different players combine to hit 12 triples in 22 attempts to finish with the second lop sided win of the season over Mondovi.

Fogarty and Heidorn combined to score 21 of the Vikings first half points allowing them to hold a 32-7 lead at the intermission. Fogarty’s points came on four deuces and a trey, Heidorn banged in a pair of triples and a pair of close range shots while Megan Schleusner and Buchanan each drained a shot from downtown and Hurlburt scored from under the hoop and from behind the arc.

“We made our first five shots of the game and that really relaxed us,” Doucette said. “We moved the ball better as a team and defensively we were pretty solid,” he added.

Alyssa Dachel got into the three point action with two in the second half, Schleusner, Heidorn and Buchanan all dropped one in and Hailey Prince canned her first as a varsity player as the Vikings coasted to the huge win.

Heidorn finished with 15 points, Fogarty added 13 and had a team leading eight rebounds, six assists and four steals. Henricks and Buchanan both snared four rebounds.

COLFAX (60) Heidorn 6-0-0-15, Fogarty 6-0-0-13, Schleusner 3-0-0-8, Buchanan 3-0-0-8, Dachel 2-0-0-6, Hurlburt 2-0-0-5, Prince 1-0-0-3, Henricks 0-2-8-2

MONDOVI (20) M. Akina 2-0-0-6, E. Flaskrud 2-1-5-6, S. Wulff 2-0-2-4, A. Accola 1-0-0-2, M. Lund 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Heidorn 3, Schleusner 2, Buchanan 2, Dachel 2, Akina 2, Fogarty 1, Prince 1, Hurlburt 1