State-ranked Hawks use 9-0 run to flip momentum against Colfax-Mingo

COLFAX — The Colfax-Mingo girls basketball team held a lead after a quarter against Lynnville-Sully for the first time since 2021-22 on Friday.

But the Class 1A No. 7 Hawks used a 9-0 run in the second quarter to grab momentum, and they stayed in front from there during a 54-30 road win in South Iowa Cedar League action.

“We have to learn from it and figure it out,” Lynnville-Sully head girls basketball coach Jerry Hulsing said. “We’ve started slow the past few games, but we’ll keep working on it and doing a better job finishing inside.”

Brilynn Tice is averaging 4.5 points per game so far this season but she scored nine of her game-high 15 in the second as the Hawks led 27-16 at halftime.

Colfax-Mingo led 12-10 after one though. Neither team led by more than three in the frame, but free throws by Blain Houseman and Isabelle Foglesong put the Tigerhawks in front 6-3, 8-5 and 10-7.

A putback by Tice evened the score at 10-all, but Lydia Hansen scored inside after that to give C-M an advantage after one.

Colfax-Mingo head girls basketball coach Michaela Graffunder was happy with her team’s start, but she hoped to close the gap at the end more, too.

“We’ve grown a lot since last year,” Graffunder said. “We probably would have crumbled even more in past seasons, but I still would have liked to close the gap a bit more than we did.

“We need to focus on finishing. Our outside shooting wasn’t great tonight. That could have been due to tired legs after playing last night, too.”

The Tigerhawks (1-3, 0-2 in the SICL) shot 23.7 percent from the floor one night after playing a conference game against Sigourney.

Lynnville-Sully looked to have fresher legs as the game went on. The game remained tied at 12- and 14-all before the 9-0 pushed the Hawks in front for good.

That spurt included back-to-back baskets by Tice, a bucket inside from Ava Brummel, a hoop after a steal from Aubrey Harthoorn and a free throw from Isabelle Vos.

Houseman made two free throws with 1:34 to play in the half to close the gap, but L-S led 27-16 at the break after winning the second quarter 17-4.

“I don’t care who scores as long as we score,” Hulsing said. “If you want to take one kid away, I think we showed tonight we have some other kids who can step. That just makes us better down the road.”

The Tigerhawks scored first in the third after Mickey Bucklin scored inside. But L-S got the next 14 and pushed the lead to 41-20 after three.

The 14-0 run included back-to-back 3s by Brooke Harthoorn and a third triple by Aubrey Harthoorn.

The Harthoorn sisters are enjoying the one season they get to all three play together. And all three are wearing the purple A’ja Wilson Nikes this season.

Kate Harthoorn was held scoreless in the game, but Brooke Harthoorn and Aubrey Harthoorn combined for 17 points off the bench.

“Those 3s were fun, but it takes the whole team to work together to get those open shots,” Brooke Harthoorn said about the back-to-back treys. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’ve been playing together for a long time obviously, but doing it in high school now is really amazing. It’s so fun to be on the court together.”

Colfax-Mingo played better in the fourth but was still outscored 13-10. Foglesong scored six of her 12 in the frame, but it wasn’t enough to rally her team.

It was a tough shooting night overall for the Tigerhawks, who were 1-of-10 from 3 with 27 turnovers.

“We had some breakdowns that hurt us,” Graffunder said. “We were able to string together some good possessions but then had more breakdowns.

“I’m proud of them. We worked really hard on how to stop their sets and broke the press well. But you can tell we’re still young enough to not see certain things clearly yet. It’s a long season, and we’ll fix things one a time. We’ve come a long way though.”

Foglesong led the hosts with 12 points and three rebounds. Bucklin added six points, eight rebounds and three blocks in her first career varsity start.

Hansen chipped in four points and eight rebounds off the bench, Houseman tallied four points and six rebounds and Dakota Allen grabbed five boards and swiped two steals.

Foglesong made 7-of-8 from the line, Houseman was 4-of-4 and the Tigerhawks were 11-of-13 overall.

Tice made 6-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the foul line and finished with 15 points and seven boards.

Brooke Harthoorn canned 3-of-5 from deep and scored 11 points off the bench. Vos pitched in seven points and nine rebounds off the bench, Brummel totaled seven points and seven rebounds and Aubrey Harthoorn registered six points, two rebounds and two steals off the bench.

Breah Lowry finished with six points, two rebounds, four assists and seven steals, Kate Harthoorn grabbed seven boards and swiped four steals and Tatum Huyser contributed three rebounds and five assists.

The Hawks (4-0, 2-0) won the game despite shooting just 30 percent from the floor and missing 15 free throws.

They only turned the ball over 10 times, swiped 15 steals and out-rebounded the Tigerhawks 42-34. L-S was 4-of-15 from 3.

Lynnville-Sully scored several points off simple back cuts and the guards found Tice and Brummel open under the hoop after strong penetration to the basket.

“What’s exciting about that is we worked on that particular thing in practice the past few days,” Hulsing said. “The game before this one our posts were wide open, and we didn’t find them for those easy looks. Our guards read that pretty well. The back cuts are just part of what we do.”

Notes: The Tigerhawks did not have the services of reserve Katelyn Steenhoek. She missed the game due to a family priority. … Graffunder said she plans to keep Bucklin in the starting lineup for now. “I thought she did a good job,” Graffunder said. “She put in a lot of offseason work so we wanted to give her a shot. I think we’ll stick with that for now. I liked how that first five looked, especially in the first quarter. They worked well together.”

Sigourney 46, Colfax-Mingo 34

COLFAX — The Tigerhawks were outscored by only two points in three of the four quarters against Sigourney on Thursday.

But the Savages used a 21-11 second frame to pull away for good and downed Colfax-Mingo 46-34 in SICL play.

The Tigerhawks were out-rebounded 41-26 and turned the ball over 28 times in the loss.

Foglesong had 11 points and two assists, Houseman tallied seven points and six rebounds and Bucklin chipped in five points and five boards to lead Colfax-Mingo.

Hansen totaled five points and four rebounds, Mallory Sipma had three rebounds, two assists and three steals and Allen posted five rebounds and three steals.

Colfax-Mingo shot 33.3 percent from the floor, made 3-of-13 from 3 and buried 7-of-10 from the foul line.

The Tigerhawks led 10-8 after one and were outscored 17-13 in the second half.

Brynn Clarahan led Sigourney (3-0, 2-0) with 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight steals and Bailey Gretter added 13 points and eight rebounds.

The Savages shot 24.6 percent from the floor, made 3-of-18 from 3 and buried 15-of-30 from the line. They turned the ball over 22 times.