Colfax girls scramble for wins

Senior guard Kylie Gronning delivers a shot after booking one of her steals Saturday in the Colfax game against Kettle. Olivia Beardslee of Kettle is in hot pursuit.

Colfax girls scrambled for two league wins over north side foes to advance their NE league record to 7-2 with five games left in the league run.

Saturday on the home court, Colfax battled against a Kettle Falls crew and posted a 49-32 win over the team which made the league's longest road trip to get here. Kettle played Colfax close in the first quarter and hit a 12-12 tie at 5:42 in the second quarter before Colfax posted a lead and kept rolling. Halftime score was 28-21.

Senior guard Kaitlyn Scholz led Colfax with 14 points in a game which featured intensive mid-court action. Scholz was credited seven steals for the night, and Kylie Gronning, also a senior guard, was credited with four steals. Colfax had a total of 23 steals for the game and forced the Kettle crew to make 35 turnovers.

The game with the K-dogs totaled 49 foul calls with Colfax booking 26.

Colfax hit 20 of 33 foul shots, and Kettle hit 17 of 34 for more than half of the team's total points.

Colfax began to open a lead in the second half and moved the margin to 20 points, 49-29, with Ashtyn Aune dropping a pair of toss shots with 3:16 left.

Friday at Creston, the host Wildcats jumped to a 14-8 lead in the first quarter, but Colfax erased the deficit with Carmen Gfeller, who booked more game time over the weekend, and Faith Markley hitting buckets. Colfax tied it at 16-16 after Taylor Garcia hit a three-pointer from the corner. She and Aune repeated threebies later in the quarter, and Colfax posted a 26-18 lead at halftime.

Defense took over in the third quarter with the Wildcats held to just two points. Colfax booked just eight in the frame with Garcia hitting three points in the last two minutes.

Karilee Maicho led the Wildcats with nine points, with seven of them off the toss line. Wilbur/Creston had just seven players suited up for the varsity game.

Colfax 49-Wilbur Creston 33: 8/14 18/4 7/2 16/13: Piper Cai 1 0-0 2, Ashtyn Aune 2 (both 3pt) 0-0 6, Katelyn Scholz 2 0-0 4, Carmen Gfeller 5 5-5 15, Sidney Sheer 1 0-0 2, Taylor Garcia 5 (3-3pt) 4-4 17, Faith Markley 1 1- 2 3. Total: 17 7-11 f-20 49. Wilbur/Creston: Karlee Maioho 1 7-11 9, Alicia Johnson 0 2-2 2, Madison Clark 0 2-2 2, Karyann Stanley 2 2-2 6, Jessi Reed 2 2-2 6, Ireland Corrigan 3 0-0 6. Total: 9 15-19 f-13 33.

Colfax 49-Kettle Falls 32: 8/5 20/16 8/5 13/6 Aune 0 3-4 3, Scholz 4 (3pt) 5-6 14, Gfeller 2 0-4 2, Sheer 4 0-1 8, Greta Geier 1 2-2 4, Kylie Gronning 0 6-6 6, Garcia 2 4-4 8, Markley 1 0-2 2. Total: 14 20-33 f-26 49. Kettle Falls: Olivia Beardslee 1 2-4 4, Taylor Dunlap 1 2-6 4, Kaitlyn Eslick 1 0-0 2, Makayla Hall 1 7-8 9, Erin Johnson 1 4-10 6, Kennedy McKern 2 (3pt) 0-2 5, Mallory Pounds 0 1-2 1, Ali Trenkle 0 0-1 1. Total: 7 17-34 f-23 32.