Bulldog girls face Crusaders, W/C Wildcats

When they travel north to Colbert Friday, Colfax girls will face a Northwest Christian team which booked a 2-3 record in the NE north loop prior to the Christmas break. The Crusader girls finished fourth in the first lap of league play behind the 5-0 mark set by St. George's on the north side leaders.

Northwest Christian bumped Freeman 46-34 last week in holiday action to move its overall record to 4-4.

The NE north-south battles started Tuesday with a clash of the leaders from each side. Liberty, which nudged Colfax here in the last pre-Chrismas game to finish on top of the south side at 5-0, rapped St. George’s 57-40 at Spangle Tuesday. Christine Denny scored 23 for the Lancers.

Liberty is now 10-0 and on top of the overall NE with a 6-0 mark.

St. George's Thursday pegged 49-45 edge over Cheney, a double-A division team. Hailey Hagashi, back as a senior for the Dragons this year, hit 23 against Cheney.

Wilbur/Creston will visit here Saturday as the number-three team on the north side with a 3-2 mark. Davenport is the number-two finisher on the north side at 4-1.

Overall league records of the NE teams will be used at the end of league action to determine placings in district playoffs beginning Feb. 7 at West Valley. Teams on the south and north sides will be placed according to their records to determine pairings.

This year's NE campaign will end with an all-NE district tournament set to begin Feb. 7 at West Valley. That replaces a pre-state competition which matched NE and SE finalists prior to the state regional round. That segment of the playoffs went off the board when the SE league folded.

Asotin moved from the SE to be the 12th team in the big NE league.

Colfax girls will start the post-holiday league run on the north side with a 9-4 overall record following a split last week in the West Valley Classic.

The Bulldogs topped LaSalle of Union Gap 55-45 in the first round at West Valley Dec. 27 and then ran into Cashmere, an A division club. They clobbered Colfax 59-34 on the last day of the WV classic Dec. 29.

Coach Corey Baerlocher said the Bulldogs could not get rolling in the first half when Cashmere took off. Hailey Van Lith, Cashmere freshman guard hit six threebies in the first half.

Cashmere finished with 44 percent shooting from the field at 23-for-52 and out-boarded the Bulldogs 38-22.

Colfax began to get traction in the third quarter when they switched to a zone, and they actually won the second half with a 21-18, not enough to erase the big 41-13 lead posted by Cashmere in the first two quarters.

Colfax actually topped Cashmere 12-9 for steals in the game and had fewer turnovers, 18 to 25.

Taylor Garcia led Colfax with 13 points.

Cashmere's win over Colfax was the second half of a Whitman County sweep. They posted a 73-50 win over the Colton Wildcats a day earlier at West Valley to end the seven-game string pegged by the 1B champs on the new season.

Cashmere cooked a 41-24 lead over Colton in the first half with Van Lith hitting 26 points. Meghan Devorak led Colton with 15 points.

Colton came back in the Dec. 29 round to defeat East Valley, a double A school, 61-53, in the last round of the tournament to advance to 8-1 on the season. Dakota Patchen led Colton on the last night with 17 points.

The Wildcats broke out of a 50-50 tie to nail the win in the last quarter.

Colton had a 34-31 lead at the break.

Cashmere 59-Colfax 34: 18/7 23/6 7/6 11/15: Scout Cai 7, Madi Cox 4, Josie Riebold 2, Carmen Gfeller 6, Greta Geier 2, Taylor Garcia 13.

Cashmere: Hailey Van Lith 15, Jade Jaspers 10, Cami Knishka 111, Ellen Sangster 7, Symdee Mongeon 7, Abbie Johnson 9.