Colfax girls on to regionals

Colfax’s Greta Geier goes up for a shot over Lydia Bergquist, left, and Claire Henning of St. George’s.

Two big comeback wins in the last rounds of the NE district show at West Valley advanced the Colfax girls to the state playoffs which will have a revised format this year. Colfax finished among the top eight of 16 state qualifiers and will face Dayton Saturday in a regional game to determine where they will start in the state tournament next week in Spokane.

Colfax made the cut Saturday in a 70-61 elimination showdown win over the Liberty Lancers, a foe which booked a special chapter in this year's hoop campaign.

Led by senior Taylor Garcia, Colfax charged out of a 10-point hole to stop the Lancers, a team which split wins with the Bulldogs in their first two collisions.

Colfax advanced to the final NE elimination round by stopping Lind/Ritzville/Sprague 49-41 Thursday at West Valley.

The Bulldogs dropped into the consolation round after being stopped by St. George's 55-39 in the semi-final round of the NE tournament.

St. George's Saturday defeated Davenport 49-46 in double overtime to take the NE's top ticket to the state show. The Gorilla girls, who were downed 68-46 here in their lone game with Colfax, collected the number-two state ticket.

Saturday's Colfax-Liberty game renewed a battle which saw the Bulldogs nip Liberty by one point Jan. 31 on the Lancers' court. Colfax pegged the one-pointer after Liberty edged Colfax 52-49 in the Bulldogs' court in the first league round at Colfax Dec. 21.

Saturday at West Valley, Liberty came out and pegged a 14-4 lead after the first quarter. Colfax shooting went clank in the first quarter with just one basket hitting from the floor.

After the icy start, Colfax scored 44 points in the next two quarters and kept it up in the last frame for the 71-60 win.

Garcia hit four three-point shots and finished with 21 points.

The elimination game featured 59 fouls, 28 by Colfax and 31 by the Lancers, who were racking up calls in intervals of just seconds during the last minute of the game as they tried to get possession of the ball.

One footnote for the game was the Colfax finish with four of the five Bulldogs starters on the bench with five fouls each.

Liberty freshman Maisie Burnham led all scorers with 24 points. Burnham hit 16-21 off the toss line. At one point in the third quarter Burnham laced seven straight toss shots and a bucket for Liberty's only offense.

During the same game segment Garcia hit two of her threebies, Carmen Gfeller added five points and Piper Cai four.

Colfax had a slim six-point lead going into the last quarter, but then hit the first five beans of the frame. The Bulldogs had a nine-point lead with 1:32 left.

One footnote was the 6-for-10 toss shot mark put down by sophomore guard Taylre Sakamoto-Howell in the last minute of foul frenzy by the Lancers.

In Thursday's eliminator, Colfax also booked a slow start against the LRS Broncos and trailed by nine points, 19-28, at the half. They came out with a 23-7 blast in the third quarter on the way to the 49-41 win over the Broncos.

Garcia also hit 21 points against LRS with 11 of them going down in the post-half comeback. She hit back-to-back treys in the run.

Coach Corey Baerlocher plugged in a 1-3-1 defense after the break, which derailed the Broncos.

Senior Tessa Jantz hit 16 points to lead the Broncos in her last game.

In the Feb. 15 semi-final, St. George's defense held the Bulldogs to single digits for the first three quarters on the way to a 55-39 win which put them in the title game Saturday. Senior veteran Hailey Hagashi laced 19 points against Colfax after being contained when the Dragons made the league stop here.

St. George's collected 15 points at the toss line off 22 Colfax fouls. Colfax hit four toss shots for the game.

Colfax 71-Liberty 60: 4/14 23/15 21/13 25/18: Parker Warwick 0 2-2 2, Alexie Smith 1 0-0 2, Piper Cai 4 3-6 11, Abbie Miller 2 (3pt) 1-5 6, Taylre Sakamoto-Howell 1 6-12 8, Carmen Gfeller 5 (3pt) 4-4 15, Greta Geier 1 (3 pt) 2-2 5, Taylor Garcia 7 (4-3pt) 3-3 21. Total 21 21-38 f-48 71. Liberty: Haley Marsh 1 2-2 4, Kendyl Fletcher 2 (3pt) 0-2 5, Christine Denny 2 7-10 11, Madelynne Flaig 5 0-0 10, Emma Wegner 0 2-2 2, Maisie Burnham 3 16-21 24, Abby Karlin 1 0-0 2. Total: 15 27-37 f-31 60.

Colfax 49-Lind/Ritzville/Sprague 41: 13/10 6/15 23/7 7/6: Cai 3 (3pt) 2-2 9, Miller 1 (3pt) 3-3 6, Josie Riebold 1 0-0 2, Gfeller 3 1-2 7, Geier 2 0-0 4, Garcia 7 (2 3pt) 5-6 21. Total: 17 11-15 f-16 49. Lind/Ritzville/Sprague: Peyton Curtis 3 (3pt) 4-5 11, Elliza Galbreath 2 1-2 5, Kallie Harder 1 0-0 2, Tessa Jantz 6 4-8 16, Tessa O'Brien 2 0-2 4, Felcia Zelmer 1 (3pt) 0-0 3. Total: 15 9-19 f-14 41.

St. George's 55-Colfax 39: 5/7 13/9 18/8 19/15: Cai 5 0-0 10, 1 0-0 2, Gfeller 1 1-2 3, Geier 3 0-0 6, Garcia 7 (3pt) 3-4 18. Total: 17 4-6 f-22 39. St. George's: Lydia Bergquist 1 2-3 4, Hailey Hagashi 6 (3-3pt) 4-7 19, Abby Jones 2 1-2 5, Daysha Melendez 7 1-2 15, Shayla Melendez 0 5-6 5, Mia Smith 1 0-0 2, Kate Tender 1 (3pt) 2-2 5. Total: 18 15-22 f-12 55.