Girls 2B: Abbie Miller’s late scoring spree leads Colfax past Davenport for title

Abbie Miller knew her team needed a lift.

Miller stepped in the void, scoring Colfax’s final seven points as the Bulldogs rallied for a 53-47 win over the Davenport Gorillas in the State 2B girls basketball championship game Saturday at the Arena.

Colfax trailed 46-39 with 3 minutes, 43 seconds to go.

Slowly, the Bulldogs (23-4) pecked away at the deficit.

A little more than 2 minutes later, Miller pulled up in transition and buried a 3-pointer to give Colfax the lead for good at 49-47 with 1:18 remaining.

Miller added a basket inside off a nice pass from Greta Geier and two free throws with 8 seconds to go.

“That’s not coaching there, that’s kids gutting it out,” Colfax coach Corey Baerlocher said. “She knew we trusted her and she trusted herself.”

Miller finished with a game-high 19 points, including five 3-pointers.

“Abbie Miller, come on,” Baerlocher said. “That’s crazy. She had an incredible game. As a senior, you can’t ask for a better way to go out.”

“I knew we were down and we needed to swing the momentum,” Miller said. “Coach told me to pull up and hit it. So that’s kind of what happened. I knew we would pull it out.”

The game was back and forth throughout.

It was Colfax’s first state title since 2014 and eighth under Baerlocher.

The defending state champ Gorillas (22-5) took the 46-39 lead with 3:43 to play.

Colfax jumped out to an 11-4 lead to start the game.

In the second quarter, Davenport used a 12-0 run to take a 20-16 lead. A 3-pointer by Sky Sakamoto-Howell pulled the Bulldogs within 20-19 at halftime.

Colfax opened a 28-22 lead midway in the third quarter, but Davenport pulled even and took the lead at 32-31 when Macie Hopkins made a 3-pointer.

The teams headed to the fourth quarter tied at 33.

Sydney Abbott led Davenport with 18 points and seven rebounds. She said the Gorillas struggled on defense in the final minutes.

“We weren’t playing defense right,” Abbott said. “I think we got tired. We were getting into our heads and we were getting too excited.”

Miller said teammate Josie Riebold put the approach to the game in perspective.

“(She) said, ‘We have nothing to lose and they have to defend the title,’ ” Miller said.

Colfax won the volleyball championship last fall.

It was a 1-2-3 finish for the Northeast 2B League at state.

“We left Northwest Christian and Liberty at home and they could have trophied,” Baerlocher said, crediting the league for preparing the Bulldogs for state.

Abbott praised her team.

“It’s very disappointing, but I’m proud of our girls,” Abbott said. “We made it here and that was our goal. We made it farther than we wanted.”

Colfax’s 6-foot-1 Carmen Gfeller, who has signed to play at the University of Montana, had 14 points.

Sydney Zeiler and Lainy Jacobson added 12 and 11 points, respectively, for Davenport.