Colfax girls nearly upset Bloomer, roll over Elmwood-Plum City

Coming off a loss to conference leading Elk Mound a few days earlier in a game where the Colfax girls came within two points of tying it up late, the Vikings had a glimpse of déjà vu all over again when they hosted Bloomer February 9. After falling behind the co-Heart O’ North Conference leaders by as much as 12 points, Colfax fought back to within two points again before losing 50-42. Three days later they returned to conference play and walloped Elmwood-Plum City for the second time this year, this time by a score of 70-29.

Bloomer

The Blackhawks were riding high after beating Hayward a week earlier, the second ranked team in Division 3, to put them in a tie with them for the conference lead. Colfax took their first and only lead early in this contest at 5-4 on a long outlet pass to Dempsey Fogarty who scored on a layup, and a triple from Ally Heidorn. Bloomer went on an eight point run with help from a pair of their own long balls for a 12-5 lead.

Both teams were launching plenty of shots from behind the arc but not many were finding the target until Alyssa Dachel canned one for the Vikings. Savannah Henricks scored off an in-bounds pass and Emma Hurlburt drove the baseline for a bucket to leave Colfax down 20-13. The Blackhawks scored from long range and short range to up their lead to 25-13.  With six seconds left in the half, Fogarty drove the lane and scored then added the free throw for the three point play and Colfax was down just 25-16 at the break.

After both teams mis-fired on three point attempts to start the second half, Dachel found nothing but net from behind the arc on the next trip down court.  That bucket was countered by a Bloomer trey. Henricks knocked down a free toss, Fogarty swiped the ball away and found Bryanna Buchanan under the basket for a deuce. Fogarty displayed her magic again, coming out of nowhere for another steal. This one led to Dachel draining another trey and the Vikings were down just 28-25. Bloomer scored from the post and on a free toss before Heidorn hit a free throw. That was countered by a Bloomer deuce, then Megan Schleusner dribbled in a circle through the paint for a bucket for Colfax. The Blackhawks connected for another triple however, increasing their lead to 35-28 with just over 9:00 left in the game.

Buchanan found the range a couple of minutes later, draining a pair of treys from opposite sides of the circle to get the Vikings back to within three at 37-34. Another Blackhawk trey quieted the hometown crowd a bit but after Colfax coach Joe Doucette called a time out, Henricks knocked down a jumper just inside the three point line. After Bloomer scored in the paint, Henricks drew the seventh Bloomer foul of the half and connected on a pair of free tosses. Colfax was still within striking distance down 42-38 with just over four minutes to go.

Bloomer’s Chandler Zwiefelhofer added her own two free throws before Heidorn knocked down another shot from downtown. Fogarty came up from behind a Blackhawk player, took the ball away and drove for a layup. She missed the shot but this time it was Heidorn who came out of nowhere and she grabbed the rebound but was fouled on the put back attempt. Heidorn hit 1 of 2 freebies to get Colfax withing two at 44-42 with just over a minute left. After the Blackhawks missed a close range shot, Colfax gave the ball back on a turnover. With 44 seconds left, the Vikings had been called for just five fouls at this point so they went agrressively for the steal and fouled two more times, forcing Bloomer to go the charity stripe. Three different Blackhawks each hit two free throws, and in between the Vikings went cold from behind the arc and failed to add any more points.

“I thought we played one of our most complete games all year,” coach Doucette said. “Bloomer is one of the best teams in the area and state and we were one play from taking the lead from them. We are so close to being pretty good but we make too many mistakes when the game is close. We have really showed a lot of resilience and toughness the last two games and I think that will help us grow,” he added.

Dachel led the Vikings with nine points on three triples. Colfax was 7 for 11 at the foul line while Bloomer finished 12 for 18.

BLOOMER (50) A. Seibel 4-2-3-12, C. Zwiefelhofer 3-4-6-11,  J. Zwiefelhofer 2-2-2-8, S. Kostner 2-2-3-6, S. S. Zwielefelhofer 1-2-4-4, K. Arrendt 2-0-0-4, J. Burgess 1-0-0-3, D. Score 1-0-0-2

COLFAX (42) Dachel 3-0-0-9, Heidorn 2-2-4-8, Henricks 2-4-6-8, Buchanan 3-0-0-8, Schleusner 1-0-0-2, Hurlburt 1-0-0-2

THREE POINTERS: Dachel 3, Heidorn 2, Buchanan 2, Seibel 2, J. Zwiefelhofer 2, Burgess 1, C. Zwiefelhofer 1

Elmwood-Plum City

The Wolves were at the bottom of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference at 1-11 and felt the wrath of the Vikings losing two straight games early. Using their full court press to force plenty of turnovers and knocking down shots from all over the court. Colfax scored the first five points of the game on a drive by Henricks and a trey from Heidorn and they never looked back. They upped their lead to 19-3 after Heidorn scored on a Fogarty assist, and it was 34-4 after a Fogarty steal and layup. At the intermission is was 42-8 for the Vikings.

After Dachel drained her second trey of the second half, Colfax went up 58-12 and the Wolves went on a mini run with six points on three deuces in the paint. Hurlburt went on her own run with five points, Hannah Sykora hit a short jumper and Hailey Durand-Christianson drove for a deuce for the final Colfax points. With two minutes left, the Vikings honed their passing and dribbling skills and ran the clock out.

“We were ready to go and had a great start,” coach Doucette said. “We moved the ball well all game and had one or two extra passes to find the open shot. Fogarty got to the rim often and Heidorn scored in a lot of different ways. A lot of our bench players saw extended minutes and I thought they played well. We are excited to finish the season strong and see how we do in tournaments,” he added.

Nine different Vikings put points up with Heidorn leading the way with a career high 21. Fogarty added 14 and Henricks and Hurlburt both scored seven. Colfax was 10 of 14 from the charity stripe and the Wolves were 3 of 8. The smothering Colfax defense held the Wolve’s leading scorer Cheyenne Catura to just three points for the contest.

COLFAX (70) Heidorn 6-5-6-21, Fogarty 6-2-2-14, Henricks 3-1-2-7, Hurlburt 3-1-2-7, Buchanan 2-0-0-6, Dachel 2-0-0-6, Schleusner 2-0-0-4, Durand-Christianson 1-1-2-3, Sykora 1-0-0-2

ELMWOOD-PLUM CITY (19) L. Diesing 2-1-2-5, J. Helmueller 2-0-0-4,  Catura 1-1-2-3,M. Afdahl 1-0-0-2, K. Sabelko 1-0-0-2, A. Morrell 1-0-0-2, A. Peterson 0-1-2-1