Placer tangles with Colfax

Local Basketball, by Andria Wenzel, Journal Sports CorrespondentPlayers fouling out, wicked dives to the floor, stifling defense, stellar outside shooting, and speedy transitions all equaled up to one thing, when cross town rivals Placer and Colfax meet up in a preseason foundation game- bragging rights still matter. With Placer?s 60-56 win the Lady Hillmen currently hold the bragging crown, but the season has just begun.?I love playing against Placer,? Colfax?s Christina Day said. ?It feels like home. I love all the players, I don?t have a problem with one of them.?The friendly rivalry was obvious as players helped one another up after previously dropping each other so hard that a professional wrestler would?ve been jealous. At the free throw line the two teams engaged in amusing conversation, until the ball bounced off the backboard, then it was back to business.The score was tied at 54 with one minute and eleven seconds left on the clock as Placer?s Tjare Dvorak stepped up to the free throw line to dash the hopes of the visiting Lady Falcons.Cool, calm, and collected, Dvorak sank one free throw to take the 55-54 lead that the Hillmen would never relinquish.?Just don?t foul and play strong defense,? was the plan according to Placer point guard Noelle Kauvo who led her team with seven points in the fourth quarter including three very late clutch free throws. She had nine points on the night.With only minutes left in the game Placer put on the full court press and the Lady Falcons struggled to get a successful shot off.With 9.4 seconds left, Kauvo stepped up to the charity stripe and put the Lady Hillmen up 60-54, thus putting the game out of reach.Colfax had their moments as well. Point guard Rebekah Calvert never left the game and was the court general, while Day played the majority of the minutes as well, taking bumps in the low post most of the evening. Placer led 29-27 at the half after a Calvert 3-pointer with three seconds left brought her team within two.The Lady Falcons had a three-point lead with three minutes left in the game after Calvert hit a close shot from the post, but Kauvo?s steal and trip to the free throw line put Placer back in the game.?This is a big loss for us,? Day said. ?They have a height advantage but it has never been a big issue before.?Colfax withered in foul trouble in the final minutes as Britte Gentry and Denise Sanchez both fouled out late in the game. ?Britte is a huge part of our offense,? Day said. ?We need her points and her banging on the boards.? Colfax?s Lisa Phillipson also went down early with an ankle injury further depleting the Lady Falcon?s lineup.?As a team we want to win league,? Kauvo said of her Placer teammates. ?But we?re just going to go game by game though.?Kauvo was not the only one getting on the scoreboard for Placer, Kelly Hangaard and Raichel Haire both struck from behind the 3-point arc twice. As a team the Lady Hillmen sunk seven shots from three-point land. Day led all scorers with 19 while Calvert posted 16 in her performance. The Lady Hillmen will travel to Fairfield for their first tournament of the season on Thursday. The Lady Falcons will make their way to Incline on Thursday for their first tournament as well. Other Foundation gamesGirls basketballDel Oro 46, Golden Sierra 30 in Garden Valley ? The Golden Eagles? led 30-25 at the half and never looked back as they won their Foundation game Tuesday night. Sara Langford and Alexis Volen led the Eagles in scoring with eight points. For Golden Sierra, Maya Leder-Adams led her team with six points and Melody Fields had five. The Grizzlies had cut the deficit to five points in the third quarter, but only scored five points in the last 13 minutes of the game. Forest Lake Christian 62, Luther Burbank 56 in Sacramento ? Brittany Allen led all scorers with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds, she also had five steals. Taylor Kilgore also scored 13 points and Brooke Hodges had 12. Point guard Chrysten Cotney did a good job distributing the ball from her point guard position, dishing out five assists. The Falcons kept a six-point lead the entire second half and stretched it to as high as nine points. Bear River 51, Nevada Union 48 in Lake of the Pines?Visiting Nevada Union had a 28-27 lead at halftime, but the Lady Bruins came from behind to win their foundation game.?We had really good play by Nicole Scott,? head coach Dwayne Ganskie said. ?She carried us the whole game.? Scott led the team with 24 points while Meaghan Noud led Bear River with six rebounds and added 10 points. Cassie Smith contributed nine points for the Lady Bruins.Boys BasketballBear River 62 Nevada Union 57 in Lake of the Pines ? Gopal Cabrera scored a team-high 25 points with five 3-pointers to lead the Bruins over the Miners in their Foundation game. Steve Sacher was Bear River?s second-highest scorer with 13 points and 17 rebounds and Dusty Tabellija and Keith Marin both scored nine points. Tim Waechter grabbed nine rebounds and scored six points as well for the Bruins. Placer 69, Colfax 56 ? The Hillmen made it a clean sweep in their Foundation games as Matt Renfree scored 15 points and Sean Jergo, Kyle Prewitt and Eric Sanchez all scored nine points in the win. Jergo and Sanchez led Placer in rebounds with nine and six respectively and Sam Nichols and Chad Huck both had four assists. For Colfax, Bret Filpowski led the Falcons with 17 points, seven assists and four steals, and Eric Grundmeier scored 15 and Robert Predosa had 11 and grabbed eight rebounds.