Viking boys roll over Buffaloes, slide past Crickets

Starting the second round of conference play, the Colfax boys defeated the Mondovi Buffaloes for the second time this year by a 52-41 score at home Jan. 28. Colfax remained at home for a Saturday evening contest two days later and used a late comeback to pull off a 68-67 win over the Fall Creek Crickets.

 Mondovi

The Buffaloes were coming in riding a six game winning streak which included a victory over conference leading Durand. Colfax on the other hand has had trouble stringing together wins and had lost their previous game against Elmwood-Plum City. But none of that seemed to matter as the Vikings jumped out to a big lead and continued to build on it the rest of the game while the defense did their part by keeping the Buffaloes’ two leading scorers in check for most of the contest.

Brett Prince continued where he left off in the E-PC game when he hit a triple for a 3-0 Colfax lead. Aliymu Davis came up with a steal and a layup, then hit a short jumper off of Prince’s steal and Kedar Davis followed with a drive in the lane for a 9-0 Colfax advantage.

Both Davis brothers drained a triple to build a 15-5 lead and Kedar Davis knocked down a free toss which was followed by Isaac Lee’s three pointer which made it 19-8. Andrew Harmon came up with a big block on the defensive end for the Vikings, but Mondovi hit  a free throw then attacked the boards on their next two possessions and scored on offensive rebounds to cut the Colfax lead to 19-13 with four minutes left in the first half.

Harmon swiped the ball under the Mondovi basket however which led to Alex Knudson draining a trey to up the lead to 22-13 but the Buffaloes used another short run of four points to cut into the Viking’s lead again. Colfax took the ball with 1:30 left and used a patient offense to try and get a final shot but they turned the ball over with two seconds left and went to the intermission ahead 22-17.

Colfax opened the second half with a Kedar Davis steal and his pass to Harmon which resulted in Jacob Larson scoring his first points of the game under the hoop. Kedar Davis followed with a short jumper then assisted Aliymu Davis for a layup and it was 28-17 rather quickly.

The Vikings allowed Mondovi to close the gap again on a deuce and a triple and Aliymu Davis had to go to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with over 14 minutes left. Lee knocked down his second trey to get Colfax back on track, then both teams went on a dry spell for over three minutes. Harmon came up with another steal and hit a jumper in the paint and Larson scored on a put back to put Colfax up 35-24.

But the referees were making good use of their whistles and Colfax was called for three fouls in a 20 second span which gave them seven with 7:38 left. Mondovi took advantage of it by hitting two free throws then scored from long range and the Colfax lead was cut again to 35-29. Kedar Davis connected on 1 of 2 freebies when Mondovi committed their seventh foul with 6:47 left but Blake Purdy scored on a bucket and a free toss and suddenly the Vikings’ lead was down to 36-32.

Usually very consistent at the charity stripe, Kedar Davis couldn’t find the hoop and missed the front end of  a one and one twice. Luckily, Mondovi couldn’t find the basket on their end either and came up empty on two possessions. Larson went to the stripe and connected on two free tosses, then pulled down a long rebound on the defensive end. It appeared Harmon was going to turn the ball over when he was trapped, but Colfax coach Garrett Maas managed to call a timeout over the loud crowd noise to avoid a turnover.

Coming out of the timeout, Kedar Davis found an opening in the lane and scored on a one handed layup, and after a Larson steal, Kedar Davis went to the charity stripe on the Buffaloes’ tenth team foul. He found his mark this time with two free throws and a few seconds later, Aliymu Davis knocked one of two down for a 43-32 advantage with 3:41 left. Harmon tacked on his own free throw, and seconds later, the Vikings fouled for the tenth time meaning the last three minutes were going to be very long.

After Purdy hit one of two free shots, the ball ended up in Prince’s hands on Mondovi’s end of the court and he was fouled. Someone on the Buffalo team wasn’t happy with the call and a technical foul was called. Prince stood at the free throw line all by himself much like he probably has done a thousand times in the gym or his own driveway, and calmly drained four straight free throws for a 48-33 lead. The three final Colfax points also came from the foul stripe when George Scharlau hit one and Kedar Davis added three more.

“We played our best defensive game of the year,” Maas said. “And we took care of the ball, committing just six turnovers in the game. We attacked the basket and got to the foul line which is important for our team,” he added.

Kedar Davis finished with 16 points for the Vikings, and Aliymu Davis, sitting on the bench for several long stretches finished with 10. Purdy, who averages 16 points a game struggled to score 15 in this one while Greg Poeschl, who averages 14 points was held to 10.

Colfax (52) K. Davis 4-7-12-16, A. Davis 4-1-2-10, Prince 1-4-4-7, Lee 2-0-0-6, Larson 2-2-2-6, Harmon 1-1-2-3, Knudson 1-0-0-3, Scharlau 0-1-2-1

Mondovi (41) Purdy 5-5-10-15, Poeschel 4-1-2-10, S. Hayes 1-3-4-6, T. Parker 2-0-0-4, H. Evans 1-1-2-3, B. Becker 1-0-0-3

Three pointers: Lee 2, A. Davis 1, Prince 1, Knudson 1, K. Davis 1, Poeschl 1, Hayes 1, Becker 1

Fall Creek

If ever there was a signature win for the Vikings this season, this one was probably it. Trying to win two games in a row for the first time this season  against a pretty solid group of Crickets, the Vikings looked pretty lackluster for the first half of the game.

After Aliymu Davis scored on a shot in the paint and a long ball to make it 5-4 for Colfax, the Crickets had a 10 point scoring streak before Kedar Davis halted it with two free throws. Aliymu Davis drove the lane and Larson scored in the paint to get to within five points at 16-11 and Prince scored from downtown to make it 18-14. Fall Creek added six more points before Aliymu Davis scored on another drive and Colfax was down 24-16, and another run, this time for seven points with three players pounding the paint, allowed the Crickets to pull ahead 31-19. At that point, the Vikings simply decided if you can’t get through the Fall Creek defense, go over them as they hit back-to-back-to-back triples from Kedar Davis and Harmon twice, and suddenly the deficit was cut to 33-25.

With two minutes left in the half, Kedar Davis came up with an old fashioned three point play with a bucket and a free throw, and Aliymu Davis followed suit with three seconds left and the Vikings went into halftime trailing 41-30.

If Colfax was going to make a game of this, it appeared coach Maas was going to have to raise a magic wand in the locker room — or at least raise his voice a little.

“I told our guys we were lucky to be behind by only 11 points the way we were playing,” Maas said. “It was not a good defensive effort on our part. We were not blocking out and were lazy in transition. Just a flat effort. We needed someone to light a spark and get us going the second half.”

Larson, Kedar Davis and Harmon all took the hint by scoring in the paint to get things going but the Crickets countered twice under their own basket. Aliymu Davis took an in-bounds pass and drained a trey and Harmon added another quick bucket to get Colfax back within six points at 48-42. Fall Creek scored again from close range but Prince drove into a crowded lane and dished out to Larson for a deuce, and once again the Crickets responded on their end.

Harmon knocked down a free toss and Aliymu Davis scored on a fast break layup assisted by his brother, then Harmon followed up his own miss to can a short jumper to make it 52-49. Larson scored under the hoop off a slick pass from Aliymu Davis and the deficit was down to a point at 52-51 with nine minutes left. Fall Creek asserted themselves in the lane again with a pair of buckets before Harmon returned to his sweet spot in the middle of the lane for a jumper and the Vikings were behind 56-53 with six minutes left.

After Fall Creek’s leading scorer Cody Folkers, who averages 19 points a game, scored his 23rd point of the game on a deuce, Prince canned a triple to get the Vikings within two at 58-56. The Crickets followed up with another deuce, but picked up their seventh team  foul with 3:40 to go. Larson went to the foul line and knocked down a pair of freebies and Folkers returned the favor with two of his own to up the Crickets lead back to four at 62-58 with 2:40 left on the clock. Larson found a crease in the lane and scored on a sweet reverse layup and the Vikings were within two points again. The Crickets were obviously trying to get the ball into their two big scorers, Folkers and Sam Steinke but the Vikings were ready for it and stepped up their pressure on them.

“We knew they were going to their big guns and I told our players during a time out we weren’t going to let those two guys beat us,” Maas said. “We wanted them to have to go to someone else.”

After forcing a Cricket turnover which resulted in a foul, Colfax missed a free throw but on the next Cricket possession, they were called for a charge. With one minute left, the Vikings finally made it over the mountain when Prince nailed his third trey of the night to put Colfax up 63-62.The Crickets managed to get the ball to Folkers, but as he started to drive, Aliymu Davis who is five inches shorter, held his ground and forced him into a bad shot.

“Coach Maas told us to play tight defense but not to foul,” Aliymu said. “So I just planted my feet and stood as straight as I could. Luckily, it threw his shot off and my teammate got the rebound”.

With 31 seconds left, Kedar Davis drew Fall Creek’s  tenth foul and hit one of two free throws for a two point lead, and the Crickets elected to go for a three point shot and were wide of the basket. They grabbed the rebound however, but threw it away with 10 second left. It was a busy 10 seconds as Kedar Davis drained a pair of free tosses, Folkers did the same on his end and Kedar Davis added two more for a four point lead with two seconds to go.

“After missing a free throw earlier and a couple in the Mondovi game, I told myself to be calm and make these,” Kedar said. “Our team had put together such a good second half to take the lead,I wanted to make sure we didn’t lose it,” he added.

Colfax allowed Sawyer Rubeck to take a final shot and he knocked down a trey at the buzzer to make it a one point game.

“We kept attacking the basket instead of trying to shoot three pointers,” Maas said. “But we also played with a lot more energy and made big plays on both ends of the court. Folkers is probably the best player we have seen this year and we knew he would score but we did enough to counter him. It feels good to finally win two games in row,” he added.

The five starters, who played the whole second half, scored all the points for Colfax with Aliymu Davis leading with 17. Kedar Davis and Harmon both finished with 15, Larson 12 and Prince nine. The Vikings were 12 of 15 from the foul line with eight triples while Fall Creek was 7 for 12 at the stripe with four treys.

Things don’t get any easier for Colfax with a home game Feb. 2 against conference leading Durand and a Saturday afternoon double header with the girls at Elk Mound Feb. 6.

Colfax (68) A. Davis 7-1-2-17, Harmon 6-1-2-15, K. Davis 3-8-9-15, Larson 5-2-2-12, Prince 3-0-0-9

Fall Creek (67) Folkers 10-7-11-27, Rubeck 7-0-0-16, Steinke 7-0-1-16, J. Olson 3-0-0-6, I. Schmidt 1-0-0-2

Three pointers: Prince 3, A. Davis 2, Harmon 2, Rubeck 2, Steinke 2, K. Davis 1