Wednesday night’s Pioneer Valley League girls basketball game between Colfax and Marysville showcased the top two teams in the league and two of the top three ranked Division IV teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section.
As much hype as there was surrounding the game, the Falcons squashed it quickly as they shut down a potent Marysville offense and rolled to a 55-30 victory.
“I just think we just came out poise and I just think we came out confident,” said Colfax coach Rexanne Simpton. “Once those first few minutes went by we just kind of settled down and played our game.”
Colfax (14-2, 2-0 PVL) was led offensively by the duo of Maycee Heimann and Kaia Diederichs, who scored 13 and 11 points respectively. Gabby Biittner posed problems for Marysville on the defensive side, as she led Colfax with five of its 14 steals. Many steals came in the post – something Colfax focused to take away from Marysville’s big duo of Krystal and Karisma Briggs.
“Marysville’s got two good post players and the last few days we’ve been really focusing on making sure we know where they are and making sure we’re getting help down low,” said Simpton. “There was a lot of rotating and defensively but I thought we did a phenomenal job.”
The Indians (14-3, 2-1 PVL) found themselves in trouble early with nine team fouls in the first six minutes of the game. Janelle Smith found herself in a particularly deep hole with three fouls in the first quarter. Colfax took advantage, jumping out to a 17-4 lead after one.
Despite the significant deficit, Marysville coach Marvin Prince felt there was discrepancy in the officiating of the game and that it had an effect on the outcome.
“We can’t play against a team and play against two referees at the same time,” said Prince. “I don’t have nothing positive to say about this game. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a game where we literally play five-on-seven.”
Prince went on to say how the foul trouble impacted his team’s game plan, noting that “if they are going to allow touch fouls to happen because we’re a bigger team, then it hurts us because it puts my bigs in trouble. That’s where most of our offense comes from, we play inside-out.”
Marysville will get back to PVL play today when it travels to take on league newcomer Twelve Bridges in Lincoln. Asked what the message is to his team moving forward, Prince said “we’re gonna move on from this one. We’re going to delete it and store it in the bank.”
Colfax will travel to Center Friday night before welcoming rivals and defending Divsion V section champions Bear River to town on Monday.
