Colfax survives nail-biter against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague

COLFAX - After beating the Asotin Panthers 69-33 on Dec. 16, the Colfax boys basketball team had a more competitive matchup against the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos on Dec. 17 that came down to the very last possession.

Both teams couldn't find separation from each other in the early-goings of the contest and found themselves tied at five points apiece with 3:50 to go in the opening quarter.

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague ended up taking a narrow 13-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and went on to add one more point to its lead in the opening minute of the second quarter to take a 16-14 lead.

A 3-pointer by Mason Gilchrist was immediately followed by a dunk by Adrik Jenkin to give the Bulldogs a five-point swing and a 19-16 lead with 6:20 to go in the first half.

After Colfax went up by four, Lind-Ritzville/Sprague clawed back to make it a 23-21 game.

The final few minutes of the first half saw several runs by both teams. Colfax went on a 7-2 run to take a 30-23 lead, and LRS went on an 8-4 run to cut the lead to a 34-31 Bulldog advantage at halftime.

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague took the lead back with 5:26 left in the third quarter after a Brock Kinch 3-pointer, and expanded its lead to 41-37 with 3:32 left in the frame.

Colfax found itself down 48-39 before another set of a Gilchrist 3-pointer and a Reece Jenkin dunk cut the lead to 48-44 heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.

Colfax would retake the advantage and go up 52-50 with 4:32 to go in the game off of two Seth Lustig free throws, which the Bulldogs were able to build into a 54-50 lead in the final 1:29 of the contest.

"I saw two really good basketball teams go and just compete and show a lot of grit," Colfax head coach Reece Jenkin said. "We had a four-point lead with a minute-and-a-half left and I just talked to our kids and said 'just got to get stops, just got to get stops.' And we just got enough of them to get a 'W.' So huge win for us. Lind-Ritzville/Sprague – they're a heck of a team."

The final result of the game came down to the wire. The Broncos got within 54-53 and had possession with :30.4 left in the game, but missed the shot that would've given them the lead.

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague was able to have one more possession – but was called for an offensive foul, and was forced to foul the Bulldogs, who were in the bonus.

Lustig made both free-throws to make the score 56-53, which ended up being the final and improved Colfax to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in league competition.

Colfax stands at second place in the 2B Bi-County League behind Davenport.

The Bulldogs in the came tested a number of different small-ball lineups, traditional starting-five lineups in the game against the Broncos, something that Reece Jenkin says is still a work in progress.

"I still don't know what the best lineup is, to be honest," Jenkin said. "Jaxon (Wick) was gone with the flu, so we were missing one kid today, and we just got Bradyn (Helisberg) back yesterday. So, yeah, we're tinkering with it. We can go big, we can go small, and part of it is just matchups and how we match up with the other team and what they're playing. But this is a versatile group. But like I said – super, super proud of these guys and we just got to continue to just grind and get better and see where we can get to."

Adrik Jenkin led the Bulldogs against the Broncos with 16 points (leading the team), three rebounds, a steal and a block. Gilchrist had 11 points, six rebounds and a steal, Lustig had 14 points, five assists, three rebounds and a steal.

JP Wigen led the Bulldogs on the glass with seven rebounds and two blocks to go with six points. Helisberg helped facilitate in his second day back on the team with four assists to go with five rebounds and two points.