Bulldogs advance in state

COLFAX - Defending state champions, the Colfax Bulldogs girls basketball team look to retain their title in the 2024 2B state championship tournament.

The girls took on fifth seed Rainier on Friday, Feb. 23, in West Valley.

As the fourth overall seed, the Bulldogs took care of business, defeating Rainier 57-32 to advance automatically to the quarterfinal round.

Colfax opened the game with a 16-15 first quarter advantage. Rainier's Angelica Askey scored 11 first quarter points, including three three-point shots. Ava Swan had six in the first for Colfax, and Brenna Gilchrist had five.

During the second quarter, the Bulldogs put up 16 points yet again, however, they would hold Rainier to five points, leading 32-20 at halftime.

Gilchrist exploded in the second, scoring eight points, out-scoring Rainier in the quarter by herself.

After halftime, Colfax would score just nine points in the third quarter. On the defensive side, the Bulldogs held Rainier to eight points, taking a 41-28 lead into the fourth.

Colfax scored 16 points for the third time in the game to help close out their victory. Rainier scored just four in the fourth. Colfax held Rainier under 10 points in every quarter besides the first.

Gilchrist and Hailey Demler each led the Bulldogs with 13 points. Gilchrist recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds, and Demler had four rebounds.

Lauryn York had a breakout offensive game, scoring 12 points, and grabbing five rebounds.

In an opening round season of upsets for 2B girls, the one, two and three overall seeds all lost their opening round matches.

While the top three teams are not out of the state tournament, they all have to play a loser-out game on Wednesday, Feb. 28, while Colfax have an extra day of practice/rest.

Colfax will play Thursday, Feb. 29, in Spokane arena, at 9 a.m., against the winner of Cle Elum-Roslyn and Okanogan.

The undefeated Bulldog boys handled Toutle Lake in their opening state game, earning the 53-32 victory.

Colfax led 15-13 after one, then held Toutle Lake to two points in the second to help secure the 19-point victory.

Seth Lustig led the Bulldogs with 15 points, and Adrik Jenkin had 13 points.

Colfax will play thier next game on Thursday, Feb. 29, at 7:15 p.m., against the winner of Wahkiakum and Tri-Cities Prep, which was played Wednesday, Feb. 28.