Colfax starts trophy bid after two regional wins

Andrew Scholz goes up for a Bulldog rebound in the White Swan game.

After stacking a required two wins in state regional rounds last weekend at University High School, Colfax boys today will join seven other 1B teams from around the state in the final three days of the hoop season in a bid for the title at the Spokane Arena.

The Bulldogs will face Adna in the tourney opener at 9 a.m. Adna arrives at Spokane as the number two team from District 2. They nipped Bear Creek 35-33 in the first regional round to get the state ticket. They like to play a solid defensive game and pick up enough points on offense to win, according to Colfax Coach Reece Jenkin.

Adna arrives at Spokane with a 22-3 record.

Everybody, including Colfax senior Alex Teade on the deck, looks up to see the fate of a shot Friday in the Colfax-White Swan game. Kyle Johnson, Brandon Gfeller, and JJ Robinson check it out for Colfax around Nathaniel Fiander of White Swan. Lawrence Fiander is at left for the Cougars.

Coach Jenkin and crew will return to Spokane after taking the eighth-place trophy last year. That was the first piece of state hardware brought back to Colfax by the boys since 1993.

Under this year’s revised three-day state run, only six trophies will be awarded.

Colfax, which kept in the running with a number-two ticket after bowing to Northwest Christian in the NE title game at Mt. Spokane two weeks ago, needed to stack two wins at University to keep their season rolling.

Friday they took out White Swan 57-41, and Saturday they eliminated Brewster 71-53.

Brewster faced Colfax after they bowed to Waitsburg/Prescott in the Friday round at University. The Cardinals, SE champions for 2B, will also be in the starting blocks at Spokane today.

Friday at University, Colfax went up against a tough White Swan team which traded buckets with the Bulldogs for the first half.

In the second half, the Bulldogs played a little more aggressive and found more points under the basket.

“I think in the first half we favored the outside jumper too much and didn’t hit. In the second half, we found we could go inside and began to open up a lead,” Jenkin said.

Colfax, at the four-minute mark, put the game in the box with a run of four straight field goals, all off the same lane on the crowd side of the court. Brandon Gfeller hit two of them and Alex Teade and Kellen Morgan hit the other two.

Colfax topped 62 percent in shooting for the second half.

Junior Justin Berarducci led the Bulldogs with 15 points and six rebounds.

Saturday against Brewster, the Bulldogs had a six-point lead at the half. JJ Robinson hit 15 points in the second quarter to carry the Bulldogs. Robinson and Berarducci each finished with 22 points for the game and Berarducci hauled down 15 rebounds. Kyle Johnson hit four three-pointers, including one igniter when Colfax surged to double digits after the break.

The Bulldogs bumped the halftime lead up to double digits at the start of the third quarter and just kept building it.

Coach Jenkin this week has rousted the crew out for early morning practices to tune up for today’s 9 a.m. opener at the Arena.

The Colfax-Adna game will be followed by the Northwest Christian-LaConner game in the top bracket of the eight team field. Winners will advance to a semi-final round Friday afternoon while losers will go into an elimination game.

First-day matchups in the bottom bracket will be Lake Roosevelt and Napavine and Bear Creek and Waitsburg/Prescott.

Colfax is the only team in the state finals who qualified with two straight wins. All others qualified with one win in the first round of regionals or a loss in the first round followed by a must win in the second round.

Colfax 57-White Swan 41: 14/13 8/7 20/12 15/9: Brandon Gfeller 4 (3pt) 3-4 12, Alex Teade 5 (2-3pt) 0-0 12, JJ Robinson 5 0-1 10, Andrew Scholz 2 2-4 6, Justin Berarducci 7 1-1 15, Kellen Morgan 1 0-0 2. Total: 24-52 6-10 f-15 57. White Swan: Leandro Huerecca 1 (3pt) 0-0 3, Alex Sampson 3 (3pt) 2-5 9, Nathan Mesplir 4 (3pt) 1-3 10, Lawrence Flander 5 1-2 11, Nathaniel Flander 2 4-8 8. Total: 15-46 8-19 f-13 41.

Colfax 71-Brewster 53: 16/13 16/13 21/11 18/16: Gfeller 3 (3pt) 4-6 11, Kyle Johnson 4 (all 3pt) 0-0 12, Robinson 8 (3-3-pt) 3-4 22, Scholz 1 0-0 2, Teade 1 1-1 3, Morgan 1 0-0 2, Berarducci 9 4-4 22. Total: 25 13-15 f-17 71. Brewster: Clay Davis 2 (3pt) 0-0 5, Josh Squires 1 (3pt) 0-0 3, Easton Driessen 5 (2-3pt) 1-2 13, Eric Knapp 2 1-1 5, Stockton Taylor 3 10-10 16, Sergio Namajo 1 4-6 6, Hunter Bach 1 1-1 3, Hunter Riggan 1 0-0 2. Total: 16 17-19 f-13 53.