Bulldog girls bring home state 2B globe

Colfax girls brought home the state 2B basketball trophy Saturday after fighting off Toutle Lake in a dramatic finish to the three-days state show at the Spokane Arena.

The Ducks, who extended their undefeated string the previous night by taking out Northwest Christian, staged a steady comeback in the title game after being blistered 12- 0 at the start of the championship game.

Toutle actually cracked a one-point lead in the first two minutes of the last quarter, but the Bulldogs refused to fold and out-scored the Ducks 14-7 in the last six minutes of the game. Final score for the title win, the first for Colfax since 2010, was 45-38.

Saturday’s championship showdown followed wins by Colfax in the first two State rounds with a 49-28 win over LaConner in the Thursday's quarter-final round and a 47-27 shutdown of St. George’s Dragons, one of three NE teams in the final eight hunt, in the semi-final round.

The title game also served as the last chapter of a playoff saga which saw the Bulldogs move past two other NE teams which served up derailments during the long winter campaign. Last week the Bulldogs stopped the LRS Broncos in the state regional test and the previous week they edged Northwest Christian, a team which had notched three wins over Colfax up to that point.

Saturday, Toutle took the court in the title game after a 58-43 win over Northwest Christian in the semi-final round. They topped DeSales, the other entrant out of the NE-SE round 55-44 in the first arena round.

Colfax opened the championship game with a 12-0 run over Toutle. They hit 10-0 before the four minute mark and inched it to 12-0 before the Ducks hit their first bucket with 1:39 left in the frame.

Score at the break was 24-20.

Toutle shooters in the first half hit 25 percent of their shots. A more telling factor was their 1 for 9 for 3-pointers, an offensive weapon they had used to stop Northwest Christian the previous night.

After halftime, the Ducks continued to close the gap and the score landed a 28-28 at the end of the third quarter.

Touchet’s Bailey Hockett hit the first bucket of the last quarter to put the Ducks on top, but Kori Goodwin and Amara Huber answered for the Bulldogs for a 33-32 lead.

Colfax senior Bailey Mackleit booked a game pivot play with 5:50 left when she stole the ball off the point and was fouled going for the bucket. Mackleit dropped one of the toss shots, but grabbed the board and dropped a bucket for a old-style three-pointer.

After another minute cooked off the clock without a score, Scout Cai hit a bucket to put Colfax up by six points.

Colfax went into clock burn game, and Goodwin hit the first two toss shots at 2:48.

The finish came after three different Bulldogs went to the toss line and missed. Toutle gained possession of the ball, but they couldn’t collect.

Cai potted two toss shots, and Huber added the last one to nail the state trophy.

Colfax held Toutle to a 27 percent shooting from the field. The Ducks finished 1-15 on 3-point shots with Samantha Woodley, who hit five against NWC, getting the only one.

Friday in the 20-point win over St. George’s the bulldogs held the Dragons to just 24.4 percent shooting. Nicole Sheer, the other Colfax senior, led the Bulldog scorers with 14 in the semi final round.

Hailey Higashi, who led the Dragons with 21 in the quarter- final win over Desales, had a team-high eight points against the solid Colfax defense. St. George's was held to 11 points over the last two quarters with just three beans in the last quarter.

In Thursday’s quarter-final win, the Bulldogs started the tourney run with a bleak three points in the first quarter, but they ignited for 20 in the next frame to begin the tourney run. Nicole Sheer led with 26 points in the 49-28 win for the opener.

Colfax will lose just two seniors, Mackleit and Sheer, off of this year’s title run. The rest of the crew included three juniors, six sophomores and a freshman. That figures to bump the Bulldogs up the leader-of-the-pack status when the tough NE league rolls into the first round next December.

Colfax 45-Toutle Lake 38: 12/52/15 4/8 17/10: Amara Huber 5 (2-3pt) 5-7 17, Kori Goodwin 1 3-5 5, Bailey Mackleit 1 1-2 3, Nicole Sheer 3 1-2 7, Scout Cai 4 (3pt) 2-3 11, Sidney Sheer 0 2-2 2. Total 14 14-22 f-11 45. Toutle Lake: Britzy Hockett 2 2-2 6, Samantha Woodley 3 (3pt) 3-4 10, Kelsey Wason 1 0-0 2, Ashelyu Dean 1 0-2 2 Bailey Hockett 5 0-110, Makala Gardner 2 0-0 4, Marissa Gardner 1 0-2 2, Maddie Adams 1 0-0 2. Total; 16 5-11 f-16 38.

Colfax 47-St. Georges 27: 15/9 6/6 15/8 11/3: Cai 2 (3pt) 0-0 5, Goodwin 4 2-2 10, Andra Hamilton 1 0-0 2, Huber 4 (3pt) 1-4 10, Mackleit 0 2-2 2, Olivia Mellor 2 0-0 4, N.Sheer 6 2-3 14. Total: 19 7-12 f-10 47. St. George's: Ceeci Berquist 2 0-0 4, Madie Ward 3 1-1 7, Emily Tender 1 (3pt) 0-0 3, Haliey Higashi 3 (2-3pt) 0-0 8, Allison Hays 2 0-0 4, Erin Armitage 0 1-2 1. Total: 11 2-3 f-15 27.

Colfax 49-L Conner 28: 3/6 20/5 15/11 11/6: Huber 3 (3pt) 0-2 7, Hamilton 2 (3pt) 0-0 5, N. Sheer 12 (2-3pt) 0-2 26, Cai 1 1-4 3, Mellor 0 1-3 1, S. Sheer 2 1-2 5, Allison Dunning 1 0-1 2. Totals: 21 4-17 f-12 49. LaConner: Anna Cook 6 1-2 13, Katie McKnight 1 0-4 2, Katie Novak 2 (3 pt) 0 2 5, Lauren Reynolds 1 2-5 4, Aubrey Stewart 1 2-24. Total: 11 5-17 f-20 28.