Colfax advances to final
Colfax head coach Corey Baerlocher likes to keep his hair short, so the gray doesn’t show.
He may need another haircut after Friday night.
Up 15 points heading into the fourth quarter, Baerlocher’s Bulldogs got a real scare from White Pass before prevailing 53-46 in the semifinals of the State 1A Tournament at the Yakima SunDome.
The Bulldogs (23-4) outscored the Panthers 12-4 in the third quarter and took a 44-29 lead into the fourth. But Colfax suddenly went dry as White Pass (24-2) went on a 10-0 run to begin the final quarter and put the fear of the third-place game into the Bulldogs.
“We got caught sitting back,” Baerlocher said. “We quit doing the things that made us successful earlier, stopped attacking them.”
Baerlocher switched out of a 2-3 zone and into a matchup zone to begin the fourth, a move that backfired. The Bulldogs didn’t score until a free throw by Kyle Shaw – who was huge in the second half – with 4:33 left in the game, and the Panthers eventually whittled the lead down to five with 1 minute, 21 seconds left.
“I made a coaching decision to change into the matchup zone, and it didn’t work out,” Baerlocher said. “We got a little lackadaisical and sat back, and that in turn affects our offense, because our defense keys our offense. As soon as we got out of the matchup, they stopped scoring.”
The Bulldogs started slow, Colfax’s legs not quite with them and White Pass’ full-court press giving them trouble. Once they did get untracked, it was thanks to Megan Teade. Teade scored eight points during a 10-0 run in the first quarter that opened up a six-point lead. She finished with 13 points, all in the first half, and nine rebounds.
“Megan’s a player,” Baerlocher said. “She is offensive-oriented when she gets the ball. … She was due to go off.”
In the fourth quarter, it was White Pass’ Kendra Redmon who went off. The 5-foot-3 senior point guard scored seven points in the final quarter and was a defensive terror.
But the Panthers finally ran out of gas, and Colfax did just enough to make their way into their third straight championship game. The Bulldogs will take on Bellevue Christian (23-1), which beat Zillah 36-34 in the other semifinal.
Freeman 52, Lake Roosevelt 40: Jessie DePell had 12 of her game-high 19 points in the second half and finished with nine steals as the Scotties rode a 19-5 third quarter to a loser-out victory over Lake the Raiders in a consolation semifinal.
Down 19-15 at the half, the Scotties (21-4) awoke with a thunder in the second half. The 2005 State 1A runner-up came out of halftime and immediately went on a 14-2 run that put them up eight with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Shooting 65 percent in the second half (11 of 17), they would push the lead to 10 by the start of the fourth and lead by as many as 13.
Five different Scotties scored during the second-half run as Freeman held Lake Roosevelt (20-5) to 21 percent shooting in the second half (5 for 24) and 27 percent overall. The Scotties held LR leading scorer Rowena St. Pierre to just five points, nine below her season average. They also forced the Raiders into 28 turnovers.
Jennesa Miller, doing a bit of everything for Freeman, had 11 points, a game-high seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Claire Moberg added eight points and six rebounds. The Scotties will take on White Swan (25-1) at 1:30 p.m. today in the fourth/seventh game.
Jessica Loe led Lake Roosevelt with 11 points, while Amanda Marchand added nine points and five rebounds.