Colfax, Crusader girls to collide again

Colfax and Northwest Christian girls will collide Saturday in round four of their season-long basketball battle after both teams rolled up 2-0 records in the first two rounds of the SE-NE playoffs.

The Bulldogs and undefeated NWC will play at Mead in the SE-NE championship game Saturday night.

The 2-0 runs this week guarantee both teams a slot in next week's "round of 16" regional. Saturday's title game will determine the first and second slots among the five assigned to the NE-SE regional.

Teams with the higher seeds are matched against lower seeded teams for the regional rounds. Also, the highest seeded teams will play closer to home.

Winners of the eight regional games advance to the state final eight show the following weekend at the Spokane Arena.

Monday, Colfax girls advanced to Saturday's title round when they defeated DeSales 45-33 at Mead. The Bulldogs faced the Irish after hammering Asotin 67-36 in the first round game Saturday afternoon at Waitsburg.

DeSales defeated St. George's girls 42-32 in the first round Saturday at Waitsburg.

The Bulldogs Monday were led by Scout Cai who hit 18 points. Cai, who has come off the bench to energize the Bulldogs in previous playoff rounds, was called to start Monday at Mead because starter Andra Hamilton was recovering from a baseline crash Saturday at Waitsburg. She sustained a high ankle sprain.

Colfax Monday broke out of a 5-5 tie to take an early lead over the Irish and kept it for the balance of the game. The Bulldogs had a 23-15 at the break.

Cai had a run of three straight hits in the third quarter to stretch the Bulldog lead to 14, 36-22.

The Bulldogs and Irish booked even tallies for rebounds, but one big edge for Colfax came off eight blocked shots.

DeSales launched a charge in the fourth quarter and came within six points, 31-37 on a bucket by Alison Wujek who led the Irish with 11 for the night.

As the clock ran down, the Irish had to stack up fouls to get possession of the ball. They had to log the first three fouls just to get Colfax to the line.

Colfax went in to a possession mode and finished it off with Cai and Kori Goodwin each hitting two toss shots.

Saturday at Waitsburg, the Bulldogs ran away from Asotin with 19-7 in the first quarter and built the lead all the way for the 67-36 win in the first round of the tournament. Nicole Sheer hit 21 points, and Amara Huber hit 20 against the Panthers who advanced to the first-round game at Waitsburg as the number-three team out of the SE.

Huber hit three 3-point shots against the Panthers, and the Bulldogs dropped a total of six long-range bombs.

Colfax also posted 34-19 rebound edge over the smaller Panther team at Waitsburg.

Northwest Christian, which had to fight off the LRS Broncos in the fourth quarter Saturday at Waitsburg, took out Dayton 65-38 in the other semi-final Monday at Mead.

The Crusaders' string now stands at 25-0. Two of those wins were one-point zaps over the Bulldogs in league rounds and another one was the two-point overtime bump of the Bulldogs in the district title game at Mt. Spokane two weeks ago.

Colfax 67-Asotin 36: 19/7 21/10 9/9 18/10: Amara Huber 7 (3-3pt) 3-4 20, Andra Hamilton 1 0-0 2, Kori Goodwin 1 3-5 5, Bailey Mackleit 2 (3pt) 1-2 5, Nicole Sheer 7 (2-3pt) 5-10 21, Scout Cai 2 0-0 4, Olivia Mellor 0 5-6 5, Kaitlyn Scholz 1 0-0 2, Sidney Sheer 1 0-0 2. Total: 22 17-29 f-24 67. Asotin: Hunter Macy 1 0-0 2, Sam Nicholas 1 1-2 3, Sarah Nicholas 1 1-2 4, Skylar Smith 1 6-9 8, Shanndyn Fyant 1 (3pt) 2-2 5, Payton Weakland 0 4-4 4, Total: 8 16-25 f-22 36.

Colfax 45-DeSales 33: 10/7 13/9 13/9 9/9: Amara Huber 4 0-0 8, Kori Goodwin 2 2-3 6, Bailey Mackleit 0 2-2 2, Nicole Sheer 3 (3pt) 0-0 7, Scout Cai 6 (2-3pt) 4-5 18, Sidney Sheer 1 1-1 3, Total: 16 10-13 f-16 45. DeSales: Emily Baumagart 2 0-0 4, Stacia Deal 0 3-4 3, Teresa Acock 2 (both 3-t) 0-0 6, Alison Wujek 3 5-7 11, Hannah Leahy 0 2-4 2, Ashlyn Lyons 2 (3pt) 2-2 7. Total: 9 12-19 f-15 33.