Colfax nets top slot at Cheney stop

After a slow start, Colfax girls Saturday put the stops on a young Dayton team on the way to a 47-28 win in the championship game of the NE-SE regional at Whitman College. Colfax rationed Dayton to just five points in each of the first three quarters.

The win advances Colfax to the state’s 16-team regional round as a number-one team. They will play Oroville Saturday at noon in the Cheney High gym for one of eight tickets to the state finals next week at the Spokane arena.

Oroville will travel to Cheney as the fourth-place finisher from the scramble for district 5-6 teams last week. They landed at Cheney after sustaining a 35-67 loss to White Swan in the last round of the mid-state finals for the 2B division.

Saturday at Whitman, Dayton, a young team which nipped Asotin and Northwest Christian to get into the title game, pegged an early lead over Colfax in an all-out first half, but the Bulldog defense took the lead over D-dogs who had a large following of fans make the short trip down from Dayton.

Colfax in the second half put in a half court trap press which raised havoc with Dayton’s offense. When it was over, the Colfax stats sheet showed Dayton with 24 turnovers. Colfax booked 14 steals over the SE foe with Scout Cai, who was on the point for the trap attack, getting four of them.

“Again, our defense set up the offense. The girls really went out there and got the job done,” Coach Corey Baerlocher commented.

Bottom line marker for the Bulldog defense was the lean six baskets Dayton hit from the field for the game.

Senior Kori Goodwin booked her best night of the season with a series of down-the-middle dribble drives. Goodwin finished with 10 points.

At the start of the game, Dayton scored the first three points while Colfax struggled to get offensive traction. Colfax didn’t get on the scoreboard until Amara Huber hit the first basket with 2:28 left in the first frame. Colfax finally cracked a 6-5 lead on a putback bucket with 1:08 left in the frame.

Sidney Sheer hit one in the last seconds for an 8-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The 17-point breakout in the third frame ended with Ashtyn Aune canning a triple and Olivia Mellor hitting a toss shot for a 33-15 Colfax margin.

Baerlocher noted he had trouble getting the crew to burn off a little clock time in the fourth quarter with Goodwin stacking her buckets.

Dayton Coach Clayton Strong after the game credited the Colfax defense with making the big Senior Lexie Ramirez lead Dayton with nine points.

As the number-two NE-SE finisher, Dayton will face the White Swan team which crunched Oroville in the final 5-7 finale.

In Saturday’s other final for the girls, Northwest Christian topped LRS 61-47 for the number three ticket to regionals and will face Mabton, number two for 5-6, in a regional round at Sunnyside.

LRS, with their number-four ticket, gets a road assignment all the way to Tumwater to play Napavine, one of the state’s 2B power clubs.

The win Saturday for Colfax bumps their record to 22-3. One of the three losses was to Okanogan which finished on top of the 5-6 playoff and will play Life Christian Saturday night at Wenatchee High School.

Colfax 47- Dayton 28: Amara Huber 4 1-2 9, Andra Hamilton 2 (both 3 pt) 0-0 6, Kori Goodwin 4 2-4 10, Ashtyn Aune 2 (3pt) 0-0 5, Katelyn Scholz 1 0-0 2, Scout Cai 0 0-0 0, Olivia Mellor 0 3-6 3, Sidney Sheer 2 4-4 8, Carmen Gfeller 0 1-2 1, Kylie Gronning 0 1-2 1, Taylor Garcia 1 0-0 2. Total: 16 12-20 f-19 47. Dayton: Lexie Ramiriez 2 (3pt) 4-6 9, Madison Mings 1 0-0 2, Sarah Phillips 2 0-0 4, Jenna Phillips 0 2-4 2, Sidney Andres 0 4-6 4, Shayla Currin 0 2-2 2, Joslyn Fullerton 1 3-6 5, Total: 6 15-24 f-15 28.