Colfax girls fall to White Swan, 41-40

Gazette Editor

Season ends one point short of the state tournament

Matched up against a torrid team of Cougars who were backed by a big home area crowd Friday night at Sunnyside, Colfax girls came within one bucket and 11 seconds of getting to this week’s state 2B tournament at the Spokane Arena.

White Swan, which charged in the last four minutes took the game and the state ticket with the last score of the game.

The zinger in the final three seconds left Colfax on the state sidelines for another year.

Reardan, the NE dominator, and Northwest Christian, both advanced to state after pegging solid wins in their regional rounds at Mt. Spokane. DeSales, the SE survivor after the last Walla Walla round two weeks ago, also made it to the state show.

Colfax Friday went up against a White Swan team which was the top qualifier out of the state’s two central districts. The Cougars, as expected, started with their pressure game which was backed by a large group of fans.

White Swan swarmed past Colfax 12-6 in the first quarter, but the Bulldogs gradually picked up ground.

They tied it at 24-24 with three minutes left in the third quarter with a steal and bucket by Amara Huber. They broke their first lead with a hit by Taylor Larsen and had a three-point edge 28-25 with a score by Kori Goodwin.

The Bulldogs comeback lead expanded to seven points, 38-31 on a toss shot by Amelie Bruya with 3:48 left.

The Cougars offense began to kick into gear and they came within a point on a putback by Cayla Jones after she snagged a series of three offensive rebounds.

Huber again hit a key bucket to stave off the Cougars, but Kayley Ryan answered to again cut the lead to a point with 11.6 seconds left.

White Swan zapped the ball to Almaray Swan who went right to the bucket for the 42-41 zapper.

One key factor in the Colfax spinout was the inability to pick up enough points off the toss line. The Cougars’ attack style of defense guarantees an opponent lots of chances at the toss line, but Colfax didn’t pick up the marbles.

White Swan fouled 28 times, but Colfax hit just 16 of 36 toss shots. They hit just seven in the first half when the Cougars were in their full swarm mode.

The Bulldogs finished their season at 23-6 with Amelie Bruya, Rachel Robinson and Bekah Kragt finishing their CHS hoop careers.

White Swan 41-Colfax 40: 12/6 1/11 3/11 16/12: Barbara Whitesell 20-0 4, Almaray Swan 2 2-6 6, Kayley Ryan 1 0-0 2, Rennae Bill 1 0-02, Cayla Jones 6 (3pt) 3-4 16, Emily Botkin 5 1-5 11. Total: 17 6-15 f-28 41. Colfax: Kori Goodwin 2 2-2 6, Bailey Mackleit 0 1-6 1, Nicole Sheer 2 0-0 4, Taylor Larsen 3 4-12 10, Rachel Robinson 1 1-3 2, Amara Huber 3 1-2 7, Brooklyn Schmidt 0 1-2 1, Amelie Bruya 1 6-9 8. Total 12 16-36 f-17 40.