The Colfax High Lady Falcons are still alive in the CIF Northern California girls basketball Div. IV regionals.

The Lady Falcons, entering the tournament as a No. 11 seed, survived a three-hour trip of Shasta Lake City here Tuesday night and then weathered a big comeback by host and No. 6 seed Central Valley to notch a hard fought 57-46 win over the Falcons and advance to Thursday’s second round.

Oh, yes, about Thursday’s second round.

By the luck — or un-luck — of the CIF regional draw, the Lady Falcons will face a six-hour trip to Humboldt County to meet McKinleyville, the North Coast Section runners-up who are 27-3, the No. 3 seed and who received a first round bye.

“It’s tough on the road like this but we’re still playing,” said Colfax coach Dave Campbell whose Lady Falcons bounced back from a tough semi-final loss to Argonaut in last week’s Sac-Joaquin semi-finals to improve to 19-11 on the season.

In Colfax’s win Tuesday, the Lady Falcons received 14 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three block effort from Cassandra Campbell and Michelle Walker added 17 more points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Colfax . In addition, Audrey Lewis was also huge for the Lady Falcons with 17 more key points.

Walker also meshed 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter to help seal the win after Central Valley had trimmed Colfax’s lead to three with three minutes left.

Central Valley cut the Lady Falcons lead to three points with 2:14 to play in the game, but Colfax sealed the game by sinking 8 of 10 free throws over the final 2 minutes.

“We’ve been in six games where we’ve been in the same situation where we needed to sink some free throws to win a ball game,” Dave Campbell said. “This team is poised to win basketball games and in order to do that they have to hit their shots at the end.”

The teams played to a 10-all tie after one quarter, but Colfax jumped to a 28-19 halftime lead thanks to a 10-0 run over the final four minutes of the second half.

In the first half, CV did not attempt a free throw as Colfax was whistled for just two fouls.

Lala Forrest-Cawker, CV’s leading scorer, was blanketed most the game by the Colfax duo of Kacey Capuchino and Audrey Lewis as the visitors seemed content to let Forrest-Cawker’s supporting cast beat them. The CV junior finished with 18 points, nine in each half.

“She just couldn’t get to the hole,” Campbell said.

In the third quarter, Colfax capitalized several times on CV’s perimeter defense, spotting Audrey Lewis and Cassandra Campbell beyond the arc, where the duo burned CV for four 3-pointers, two each, in the quarter and a 44-27 lead entering the final period.

But CV cut the lead to 45-37 with four minutes to play. Forrest-Cawker hit a pair of jumpers, Jenna Littlejohn had a putback, Jordon Conner added a 10-footer and Sanchez canned a bucket to fuel the 10-1 CV run.

Littlejohn and Forrest-Cawker hit again before Karlee Taylor buried a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 47-44 with 2:41 to play.

But the CV momentum stalled as the full-court press employed by the Falcons led to several hand-check fouls. Forrest-Cawker was whistled for her fourth with 1:41 left and Michelle Walker canned the first two of her six consecutive free throws in 37 seconds.

Thursday’s Colfax-McKinleyville winner will advance to the semi-finals and meet the winner of the Modesto Christian-Justin-Siena of Napa game on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the home site of the highest remaining seeded team.