It’s Colfax, Reardan

1A basketball

After a dominating first half, it finally took foul trouble in the second half to slow down Kristen Turner of Reardan.

Turner, a Northeast A League co-MVP, sat down with four fouls in the third quarter. Colfax finished the quarter on a 15-0 run on route to a 60-51 victory in the Northeast A district basketball tournament Friday at Mead High School.

The victory sent the Bulldogs (15-8) to the state tournament. Reardan was eliminated.

The Reardan boys rode Rhett Soliday’s 21 points into the state tournament as the Indians defeated the Freeman Scotties 64-43 in the tournament’s nightcap.

Turner scored 13 points and grabbed the majority of her 17 rebounds in the opening half as Reardan (12-12) overcame a four-point, first-quarter deficit by stringing together a 17-2 run to take a 32-22 lead at the half.

“The second quarter they came out hunting like a mad dog,” said Colfax coach David Ebersole. “The third quarter we took over the tempo and we made things happen.”

Turner returned late in the third quarter and helped spark the Indians by scoring nine in the fourth quarter, but the damage had already been done.

The Bulldogs scored 10 of their final 12 points at the free-throw line.

“We let up a little thinking they’re going to give up this game,” Reardan coach Bryce Wilson said. “We never settled back down until the fourth.”

“We seemed to let down a little bit,” said Turner, echoing her coach’s words, “and they took advantage of it.”

Laura Widman, the league’s other co-MVP, scored 10 for the Bulldogs and Jessica Rhoner scored 17.

Debbie Plummer scored 11 for Reardan and added 12 rebounds.

Colfax will have a 10-game winning streak going into state March 5-7 in the Tacoma Dome.

Girls: Colfax 60, Reardan 51

Reardan 10 22 4 15 - 51

Colfax 14 8 20 18 - 60

REARDAN - Cassaro 2, Schwartz 0, Seyler 4, Jayne 5, Krupke 0, Rinker 5, Hicks 0, Plummer 11, Turner 24.

COLFAX - Pittman 14, Mellor 8, Hall 5, K.VanTine 0, B.VanTine 6, Rohner 17, La.Widman 10, Baldree 0.

Boys: Reardan 64, Freeman 43

The reason for Freeman’s loss couldn’t have been simpler for Mike Thacker, the Scotties’ coach.

“This game comes down to simple things,” he said, “and the simplest thing is to put the round thing in the other round thing. We didn’t do that in the third quarter.”

“It’s pretty simple.”

After a back-and-forth first half that ended with Reardan clinging to a 23-21 lead, the Indians (16-7) opened up the second half with a 16-5 run.

Reardan held off Freeman (17-7) at the line in the fourth quarter, with 13 of 23 Indians points coming from the line. Peter Eastman scored six straight Reardan points from the free-throw line.

“We’ve some guys that can really step up and hit them,” Reardan coach Dan Smith said of his team’s free-throw shooting.

“We didn’t play well in the first half,” said Soliday, “but we still had a two-point lead. That told us if we came out and played our game …”

As well as Soliday’s game-high 21 points, the senior guard added four steals and five rebounds.

Freeman had balanced scoring, with three players in double figures. Steve Simmons was the top scorer for the Scotties with 11 points and Josh White and Ryan Synder scored 10 apiece. “This is totally new for us,” Smith said about his team making it to state in its first season in the 1A classification. “A lot of unknowns.”

Freeman 8 13 8 14 - 43

Reardan 9 14 18 23 - 64

FREEMAN - C.Miller 0, Love 0, R.Snyder 10, M.Miller 6, Simmons 11, Freeman 0, Shkuratoff 0, Goldsmith 6, White 10, S.Synder 0, DePell 0.

REARDAN - Eastman 13, Soliday 21, Jenkin 16, Nollmeyer 4, Brown 6, James 2, Clay 2.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo