C-M girls can’t finish off North Tama in playoff opener

TRAER — The Colfax-Mingo girls basketball team held a lead after three of the four quarters of action Thursday night during the opening round of the Class 1A Region 3 tournament against North Tama.

Unfortunately, for the Tigerhawks, the one quarter they didn’t have the advantage was the fourth as the Redhawks scored the game’s final seven points and rallied for a 31-28 home victory.

The Tigerhawks held a two-point lead with two minutes to go in the game but turned it over on back-to-back possessions.

That proved to be the momentum swing in the game as North Tama converted both miscues into buckets at the other end and outscored Colfax-Mingo 7-2 in the final quarter.

“Two turnovers in a row. That’s the story of our season,” Colfax-Mingo coach Michelle Grant said. “If we turn the ball over four less times a game, if it’s the right four, we may have won a few more games that we lost.”

Sophomore Ries Wilson scored the Tigerhawks’ first seven points but did not score again after battling through foul trouble the rest of the night.

Wilson picked up two in the first quarter, had three at halftime and missed most of the third quarter when she was whistled for a questionable foul two minutes into the second half.

Wilson was called for three of Colfax-Mingo’s five first-half fouls. North Tama was whistled for five fouls in the entire game.

“I significantly disagree with the officiating tonight. I am not happy with that at all,” Grant said. “I hate saying anything about the officials, that’s not me. You can’t control that, and we need to control what we can control, but I was not impressed with the crew.

“The fourth foul on Ries was a huge call. She stood straight up and moved her wrists a little bit. I guess it was enough to blow the whistle.”

The officiating didn’t lose the game for Colfax-Mingo, but some individual decisions didn’t help matters.

Aside from the calls against Wilson, Grant said she tried to call timeout on two different possessions, but the officials let five seconds run off the clock before stopping play both times.

Colfax-Mingo led 9-8 after one quarter. A McKeely Tjaden drive and bucket shifted the advantage back to the Tigerhawks after North Tama took the lead on back-to-back hoops by Madison Howard.

Dakota Hostetter scored inside to push the Tigerhawks lead to three early in the second, but the Redhawks (14-8) went back in front with an Abbie Schafer jumper and an Alyssa Wrage trey.

Mackensie Brown made a layup and got fouled to tie it, Tjaden scored inside to put her team back up a deuce, and Amy Russell’s jumper sent the Tigerhawks into halftime with a 17-13 lead.

The largest lead of the game for either team came early in the third when Hostetter made 1-of-2 free throws to push the advantage to five.

Seven straight from North Tama — five in a row from Howard — shifted momentum back over to the hosts, but each team traded buckets to get to 24-all, and then Tjaden’s jumper, after tying it with a putback, gave the Tigerhawks a two-point lead heading into the final quarter.

Russell converted a bucket on the baseline following a Hostetter offensive rebound on Colfax-Mingo’s first possession of the fourth quarter, but the Tigerhawks never scored again.

Shelby McKinley got a steal at the top of the key and raced to the other end of the floor for an uncontested layup to tie it at 28-all, and then another turnover led to a Schafer basket on an inbounds pass. The basket by McKinley earned her only two points of the game, while Schafer had a game-high 12 points and seven rebounds.

Howard made 1-of-2 free throws with 17 seconds to play to put the Redhawks up three, and Payton Rhone’s attempt at a game-tying 3-pointer was off line.

The final possession came out of a timeout, and Grant said the right person took the final shot.

“We were looking for Payton or Ries to roll out,” Grant said. “Payton is the shooter we want to look for.”

It was the fourth straight win for North Tama, and the Redhawks have won seven of their last eight games. They’ll face Gladbrook-Reinbeck at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Belle Plaine. The Rebels knocked off host Belle Plaine, 48-43, on Thursday.

Tjaden scored a team-high eight points and grabbed five rebounds for the Tigerhawks, while Wilson added seven points and nine boards. Hostetter scored five points and pulled down seven rebounds, and Brown also corralled five boards. Russell scored six points.

Howard scored 10 points and had seven steals, while Wrage dished out eight assists for the Redhawks, who survived a poor shooting night from the floor.

“The homecourt advantage wasn’t present for us tonight,” North Tama coach Phil Moss said. “We got the shots we wanted, they just weren’t falling for us.”

While the shots weren’t falling, North Tama did have long, deliberate offensive possessions, and that helped the Redhawks dominate on the glass in the first half. It also created some driving lanes to the basket for Howard and Schafer.

“It affected our rebounding. We weren’t in a good position to rebound the ball,” Grant said. “If we were, we couldn’t hold them back because we were tired from playing defense so long.”

Moss added, “We wanted to move the ball against their 2-3 zone to get them out of position. They overcommit a little bit so the ball movement also created some driving lanes. We were able to make their zone move.”

Colfax-Mingo 9-8-9-2—28

North Tama 8-5-11-7—31

C-M (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Russell 3-0-3-6, Tjaden 4-0-1-8, Wilson 2/1-0-4-7, Hostetter 2-1-1-5, Brown 1-0-4-2. Totals: 13/1-1-12-28.

North Tama (FG/3-pt-FT-F-TP): McKinley 1 0-0 2, Wrage 1/1-0-3-3, Howard 4-2-0-10, Schafer 6-0-0-12, Hillman 2-0-0-4. Totals: 14/1-2-5-31.