Colfax boys crank up drama factor for two wins

Colfax boys booked two high drama wins this week in the first two games against teams from the north side of the NE league. The Bulldogs battled for a 56-55 double overtime win at Davenport Tuesday night and fought off a determined Northwest Christian team Saturday night in a game at the Jennings gym in Colfax.

The two wins left the Bulldogs at 5-1 in league play, one notch back of the Liberty Lancers.

Tuesday against a 3-7 Davenport team, the Bulldogs took a one-point win with Keith Gfeller driving a baseline shot in the last two seconds of the second overtime. Davenport had 1.3 seconds left, but couldn’t collect.

The game ended at 40-40 in regulation time with Austin Zeller hitting the first tie-making shot.

Davenport answered in a big way in the first overtime with Nathan Hopkins hitting a three-point shot at the buzzer to lock the score at 52-52.

Hopkins’ zinger came after the Bulldogs pegged a 50-46 lead going into the final seconds of the overtime. Kasey Johnson hit two three point shots in the first OT, and Kenton Lyman pulled down a big offensive board and hit off the line for a three-point Colfax edge before Hopkins erased it.

Colfax started the game at Gorillaville with Danny Robinson, who has been averaging over 13 points per game, out of the lineup after rolling an ankle in practice.

Saturday, Colfax fought off Northwest Christian in their first matchup with a team from the north side of the league. The Crusaders landed here with a 5-0 league mark after a sweep of foes in the first round on the north side.

Colfax and the Crusaders fought a seesaw battle Saturday with the Bulldogs carving out a lead in the second quarter and had a 39-28 lead at the half.

After the break, NWC’s Ryan Ricks when on a one-man charge and in the first four minutes and melted eight points off the Colfax lead. Ricks finished with 22 points and four three-point shots.

Colfax jacked it back up to 10 points with Keith Gfeller scoring on a steal and hit and Danny Robinson dropping one of his four threebies in the game.

The Crusaders again game back and two toss shots by sub Rolf Veenstra cut it to 57-59.

It went down to a three-point gap at 64-61 with the Crusaders getting the ball out-of-bounds on their own base line with 8.2 second left.

The Crusaders lined their offense deep, at three-point range, but Kasey Johnson stole the ball to ice it.

Liberty’s Lancers Saturday night introduced themselves to the NE north with a 90-45 pounding over Davenport.

Colfax boys last Tuesday booked an overtime win over Lake Roosevelt to depart the West Valley tournament with a 2-0 record. The Bulldogs bombed 12 points in their first overtime of the season for a 58-54 win. The two clubs finished regulation play at 46-46 after LR scored in the last seconds of the fourth quarters.

Robinson hit a season high 23 points in the game with anptjer three buckets from outside the three-point arch.

Lake Roosevelt stacked up 22 fouls against the Bulldogs and Colfax collected 22-28 off the line for one of the big factors in the game.

Colfax 56-Davenport 55, 2OT: 6/11 15/6 7/10 12/13 8/8 8/7: Mark Webber 16, Keith Gfeller 16, Hunter Weitze 2, Kenton Lyman 10, Kasey Johnson 12. Davenport: Nathan Hopkins 13, Austin Zeller 10, Tom Wilkie 9, Ryley Glick, 1, Kendall Coopersmith 4, Cameron Umble 9.

Colfax 64-Northwest Christian 61:19/17 20/11 11/15 14/18: 6 (4-3pt) 4-9 20. Mark Webber 1 (3pt) 1-2 4, Keith Gfeller 4 2-5 10, Kenton Lyman 3 0-0- 6, Kasey Johnson 7 10-12 24. total: 21 17-28 f-20 64. Northwest Christian: Ian Starkey 4 4-8 12, Veenstra 1 1-2 4, Ryan Ricks 6 (4-3pt) 6-8 22, Nathan Sander 1 0-0 2, David Olds 6 (3pt) 2-2 15, Asher Cox 3 1-3 7, Colter Batteron 0 1-4 1. Total 20 16-27 f-21 61.