The road can sometimes be rude in CIF Nor Cal Regional play.
Colfax’s Falcons found that out the hard way as the school’s boy’s basketball team for the second time in the last three years had their season halted on the Berkeley home court of the St. Mary’s Panthers.
Facing the No. 1 seeded Panthers — who will play Salesian of Richmond this Saturday at Folsom High at 7:00 p.m. for the Boys Div. IV NorCal championship — Colfax battled the highly regarded hosts gamely for three and a half quarters before a late surge and key free throws by the Panthers led to a final, 67-54 win.
“The game was a lot closer than the final score,” said Colfax coach Mike O’Connell. “We were down by a point with five minutes to go. I’m proud of the way the guys battled the whole way.”
Colfax pretty much stayed head-up with the Panthers as St. Mary’s couldn’t shake the Falcons on their way to leading 16-13 after one quarter of play and 29-25 at halftime.
The Falcons kept within striking distance in the second half has solid all-around efforts from Ryan Salmonson, Justin Witt and Joey Jergo led to another good quarter of action by Colfax and found them behind just 44-39 with eight minutes left.
However in the final stanza, the Lee brothers, 6-4 Dominique who is headed to Utah next season on scholarship and twin brother Demitrius combined for the big points as the Panthers’ athleticism allowed them to pull away from the visitors.
Salmonson led Colfax with 14 points while Witt and Jergo both scored 13 points apiece.
Colfax finished the season with an outstanding record of 27-6.
Colfax Lady Falcons fall to McKinleyville
It started as the longest playoff road trip in Colfax High athletic history since the Colfax High Lady Falcons captured the 1983 CIF state girls basketball championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
And although last Thursday’s 6-hour, 325-mile trip to Humboldt County to play the highly regarded McKinleyville Panthers in the quarter-final round of the CIF Nor Cal Div. IV girls basketball regional didn’t end with a Colfax victory, the chance to compete at a high level was enough to impress coach Dave Campbell.
“We had a great season,” said the Colfax coach. What a great group of kids. The seniors that played this year have had great careers at Colfax and they have all the attributes to be a basketball player. They love to play the game, they have great attitudes. Senior leadership like that got us where we are today. It’s a special group of kids.”
Colfax ran into a hot-shooting home team as the Panthers followed a superlative effort by Panthers star Sage Romberg to get on their way to a 57-30 win over the Lady Falcons.
McKinleyville, who went on last Thursday to defeat Modesto Christian on the road in the semi-finals, followed Romberg’s big first quarter to thump the Falcons. Romberg, a Washington State commit, scored 15 of McKinleyville’s first 17 points and finished the game with 17 of her own, playing only four minutes in the second half.
“They’re very good team,” said coach Campbell of the Panthers (28-3), who led 22-11 after one quarter and 36-14 at halftime. “They have one of the highest-recruited kids in the nation, and everything they put up was going in the hole. We shot the ball horribly. If we would have shot the ball well, they still would have beat us but it would have been a closer game.”
Michelle Walker scored a team-high six for the Falcons.
Cassandra Campbell and Haley Biles finished with five apiece and Cathy Hinrichs added four.
Ashley Scott, K.C. Capuchino, Erica Heikila, Audrey Lewis and Emily Colon all scored two points each as Colfax finished the year 19-13.
Mckinleyville will play St. Mary’s of Berkeley Saturday at Folsom High at 6 p.m. in the Northern California Div. IV championship game.