Colfax girls advance to NE District title game

Ashtyn Aune goes around the corner in the key Saturday to attempt a shovel shot in front of Kettle's Makayla Hall.

Colfax girls rolled up wins in the first two rounds of the NE tournament Saturday and Monday and will head for a rematch with St. George's Friday night in the championship game in the West Valley High School gym.

The Bulldog girls and St. George's last collided Feb. 3 in a game here to decide the top slot for the south side of the NE, and the Dragons pulled it out in overtime. Friday night the two teams will be playing for the overall top slot for the NE where the top five finishers from the league will go up against the top three from the SE at Mead.

Colfax Monday night defeated Davenport by one point, 41-40, in a game which came down to the final seconds. The semi-final battle saw Davenport, the top entry from the north side, post a 17-11 lead after the first quarter, but Colfax remained on track and gradually chipped away. Davenport had a 26-22 edge at the break, and Colfax defense held the Gorilla girls to just six points in the third quarter.

Ashtyn Aune hit a three-pointer before the end of the quarter to give Colfax a one-point lead, but the Gorillas bounced back for a 33-32 edge going into the last quarter.

Davenport started the last quarter with a five-point zap, but Colfax tracked them down. Carmen Gfeller hit a pair of toss shots with a little more than three minutes left, and Aune hit to cut the Gorilla lead back to one point, 39-40, with two minutes left. Colfax got the ball back, and Gfeller was fouled and added another pair to put Colfax on top, 41-40 with 1:18 left.

Those turned out to be the last points of the game. Davenport had one possession with 43 seconds left and did not collect, and they had another possession with 13 seconds left.

Meika Heath, Davenport's 5-9 freshman who topped all scorers with 18, went up with a jumper, but it did not drop.

Gfeller, who finished with four of her five toss shots for the night, led Colfax with 13 points.

The post game tally showed Colfax hit more shots from the field and put down seven more shots off the toss line than the Gorillas.

Contrary to their trend for most of the season, the Bulldogs were called for less fouls than their opponents in the semi-final.

St. George's landed in the Friday championship game after hammering Lind/Ritzville/Sprague 45-24 in the other semi-final game Monday at West Valley.

Colfax advanced to the semi-final with a 59-34 win over Kettle Falls Saturday in the first round at Smith Gym in Reardan.

The Bulldogs rolled up a 31-9 lead of over Kettle at the half.

Colfax put down six three-point shoots in the game with Aune and Katelyn Scholz each hitting two.

Gfeller also led Colfax in scoring at Reardan with 12 in a game which saw coach Corey Baerlocher use the whole Colfax roster in the second half.

Kettle bounced back to take a one-point edge for the last quarter when the reserves were on the court. Erin Johnson, who hit both of Kettle's three-point shots, led the north end club with nine points.

Liberty defeated Kettle 63-58 on Monday to end the hoop season for the north end Bulldogs.

Colfax 41-Davenport 40: 11/17 11/8 11/6 8/8: Piper Cai 2 (3pt) 0-0 5, Ashtyn Aune 4 (3pt) 0-0 9, Olivia Mellor 2 2-2 6, Carmen Gfeller 4 (3pt) 4-5 13, Greta Geier 2 0-0 4, Taylor Garcia 1 0-0 2, Faith Markley 1 0-0 2. Total: 16 6-7 f-11 41. Davenport - Meika Heath 6 6-9 18, Madison Abbott 2-2-2 6, Sydney Abbott 5 (2 3t) 0-0 12, Sydney Zeller 1 (3pt) 1-2 4. Total: 14 9-13 f-14 40.

Colfax 59-Kettle Falls 34: 13/2 13/7 15/11 13/14: Cai 2 2-6 6, Aune 3 (2-3pt) 3-4 11, Katelyn Scholz 2 2-2 6, Mellor 1 1-2 3, Gfeller 5 2-2 12, Sidney Sheer 2(3pt) 2-2 7, Kylie Gronning 1 (3pt) 1-2 4, Garcia 3 0-0 6, Markley 0 2-4 2. Total: 19 15-24 f-18 59. Kettle Falls - Olivia Beardslee 1 1-3 3, Taylor Dunlap 1 1-3 3 Katelyn Esklick 0 4-4 4, Makayla Hall 4 0-2 8, Erin Johnson 3 (2-3pt) 1-2 9, Mallory Pounds 0 2-4 2, Ali Trenkle 2 1-2 5. Total: 11 10-19 f-19 34.