Dragon girls stop Colfax short of top slot

Colfax senior Taylor Garcia gets attention from three St. George's defenders, from the left, Shayla Melendez, Mia Smith and Hailey Higashi, as she lines up a shot Friday.

Kate Tender of St. George's runs into Piper Cai as she attempts to drive the baseline. Madi Cox is at left for the Bulldogs.

Colfax girls booked a split in NE league action over the weekend to land in a tie at 9-2 for the number-two notch in the NE league race. The Bulldogs Friday were derailed on the home court by a St. George's team which seemed to pick up speed as the game advanced. The Dragons departed with a 46-36 win.

In the overall league race, St. George's moved into a tie with Liberty after the Lancers' win string was stopped by Davenport in the Friday league round.

Lone loss for St. George's, which ran a 5-0 string against north side clubs in the first round of action, was to the Lancers.

Friday on the home boards, Colfax led by a point, 5-4, after the first quarter in a game which featured defense.

Colfax closed out the first half with just a three-point lead after Taylor Garcia and Carmen Gfeller hit buckets just before the break.

The chase continued at the start of the second half, and the score locked at 24-24 before the Dragon's senior veteran, Hailey Higashi, hit a three-pointer to stake a 27-24 SG lead right at the end of the quarter. The Dragons kept the lead for the rest of the game.

Gfeller, who led Colfax with 19 points, scored a run of five points to get the Bulldogs back within two, 29-31, but the Colfax offense stalled out at that point.

The Bulldogs were forced to foul in the last minutes in an attempt to get the ball, but St. George's shooters remained steady at the toss line. They finished at 15-22 for toss shots which came off 24 Colfax fouls.

Colfax hit just four toss shots for the game and had 32 turnovers in the game.

Lydia Berquist led the Dragons' offense with 12 points, and sophomore Abby Jones hit 11.

Saturday Colfax pegged a 64-32 win against a Kettle Falls team which had booked just one win on the season. Coach Corey Baerlocher used the total roster for the game at Kettle. Gfeller finish with 23.

Friday, Colfax will head south to start the second round against NE-south teams at Asotin. The Panther girls, now 3-8 in the NE race, were dropped 64-48 by Northwest Christian in the Friday round of league play and by Wilbur/Creston 50-38 in the Saturday game at Wilbur.

St. George's 46-36: 5/4 13/11 6/12 12/19: Parker Warwick 1 0-0 2, Piper Cai 3 0-1 6, Abbie Miller 1 (3 pt) 0-0 3, Gfeller 8 (3pt) 2-4 19, Greta Geier 1 0-0 2, Garcia 1 2-2 4. Total: 15 4-9 f-24 36. St. George's: Ceci Berquist 0 2-2 4, Lydia Berquist 5 2-2 12, Higashi 2 (3pt) 2-2 7, Jones 3 5-6 11, Daysha Mendez 2 1-4 5, Shayla Mendez 3 3-6 9. Total: 15 15-22 f-15 46.

Colfax 64-Kettle Falls 32: 17/8 23/9 15/7 9/8: Warwick 2 0-2 4, Cai 5 (3pt) 1-4 12, Madi Cox 1 0-0 2, Miller 3 0-0 6, Taylre Sackamoto-Howell 1 2-4 4, Josie Riebold 1 0-0 2, Gfeller 9 (3pt) 4-4 23, Geier 0 4-4 4, Garcia 2 (both 3pt) 0-0 6, Rachel Brown 0 1-2 1. Total: 24 12-20 f-11 64. Kettle Falls: Iris Armstrong 2 0-0 4, Taylor Dunlap 3 0-0 6, Kaitlin Esick 1 0-0 2, Jocelyn Glover 1 0-0 2, Zarah Johnson 2 (3pt) 2-2 7, Kennedy McKern 1 (3pt) 0-0 3, Ali Trenkle 2 0-2 4, Samantha Dudley1 0-0 2. Total: 13 2-4 f-14 32.