Bulldog misfires mark early end to hoop year

Basketball season for the Colfax boys came to a frustrating end Friday afternoon at Whitman College when they were derailed by the Walla Walla Valley Academy Knights in the last elimination round on the NE-SE playoffs.

The Knights, who entered the tournament as the top team from the SE, roared to a 35-24 lead in the first half, weathered a Colfax charge when the Bulldogs began to hit buckets and finished with a 53-47 win to take the number four ticket to this week’s one-game regional elimination.

“We just got ourselves into too deep of a hole, and we couldn’t get out of it,” Coach Reece Jenkin said this week.

The Colfax shooting in the first half sagged to near 20 percent before they found the range after the break.

“We began to hit the buckets, but we just couldn’t break though,” Jenkin commented. “I think if we had been able to get a lead, we could have kept it.”

Colfax knocked nine points off the big WWVA lead in the third quarter with Danny Robinson dropping two three-point shots, and Kasey Johnson hitting a trey right at the end of the quarter.

That put Colfax within five points of the lead, normally an easy gap to erase for the Bulldogs when they are on a roll.

Colfax came within two points, but the charge ended there. Bulldog scoring for the last frame boiled out to just three more buckets, all by Johnson.

The Knights had a big boost when Zayne Browning hit a three-pointer from the corner. They also had a key putback by Austin Jennings who converted a missed Knights shot into two points when the Bulldogs were running out of possessions as the clock burned down.

The loss ended the Colfax season with a record of 21-5, a mark which exceeds the credentials for many of the 16 teams in this week’s round of single elimination. The big factor in the Colfax shutdown was that three of their defeats came during the district and sub-regional playoffs.

Colfax booked wins during the league run over each of the three NE teams which are still in the action as of this weekend,

“These guys worked so hard, and I wanted to see them go on just for that reason. They are a great group of players, Coach Jenkin noted.

Johnson, Mark Webber, Hunter Weitze and Brent Becker are the four seniors who will graduate off the club.

Liberty continued its playoff run with a 70-61 win over Northwest Christian in the Saturday round to decide the one and two tickets to the regional. Wilbur/Creston bumped the WW Knights 56-47 for the third and fourth place tickets.

Liberty will play Warden at Cheney Saturday at 10 a.m. for a ticket to the final eight. Northwest Christian will make a short trip south Friday to play Lake Roosevelt at Mt. Spokane at 6 p.m. Wilbur/Creston will play Okanogan at 8 p.m. Saturday at Wenatchee High, and WWVC takes the number-four ticket all the way to Tumwater to play Toledo Saturday at 8 p.m.

Walla Walla Valley Academy 53-Colfax 47; 20/13 15/11 8/1710/6: Danny Robinson 6 (2-3pt) 3-4 17, Mark Webber 3 (3pt) 0-1 7, Keith Gfeller 2 0-0 4, Kenton Lyman 1 0-0 2, Kasey Johnson 5 4-6 4-6 15, Brent Becker 2 0-0 2. Total: 18 7-11 f-8 47. WWVA: Malcolm Shaw 4 (2-3pt) 0-0 10. Brandon Richardson 6 0-0 12, Zayne Browning 3 (3pt) 0-0 7, Cameron Fitzgerald 2 (3pt) 1-2 6, Caleb King 5 2-2 12, Austin Jennings 3 0-0 6. Total: 23 3-4 f-12 53.