Colfax clamps Escalon for for D-IV crown, looks ahead to NorCal Regional

When the final buzzer sounded in Friday night's Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV girls basketball championship game, there was no storming of the court or dogpile on the logo at University Credit Union Center at UC Davis. Instead, Colfax celebrated its 64-48 over No. 3 Escalon like it would any other win because to the Lady Falcons, it was just another day in the office. "We want to compete at a high level, and I think they knew that they were gonna win this game but at the same time, they wanted to play better than they did," Colfax coach Rexanne Simpton said. "There was a little bit of frustration that you see on their faces because they know that we can play better. But shoot, we just won a section championship. That's the beauty of a good team is they want to play at a high level." The top-seeded Lady Falcons looked the part on their way to a 13th section title and second consecutive D-IV crown, winning every playoff game by double digits for the second season in a row. The foundation for banner number 13 was laid in the summer, as Colfax worked tirelessly all offseason to prepare to defend its title. "We start in May. We get going and it's a long process and they put in a load of work," Simpton said. "It's hard to get to this point of the season, and we're expecting this from them. When you reach this point, they start to realize, all right, it's worth it, all this hard work and all this grinding." It was a tough, physical first half that was ruled by defense with neither team making any 3-pointers and both shooting below 30 percent from the field. Colfax hit the boards hard in the first two quarters, reeling in 33 rebounds to Escalon's 20, including 11 by Laurlyn Massick. Junior Juliette James also made her mark in the first half, scoring nine of her game-high 18 points and passing the 1,000-point mark in her career. "It just gave me a lot more confidence," James said of how her 1,000th point fueled her for the remainder of the game. "Especially seeing and hearing the support of everyone and seeing how excited my teammates were for me." "She is a force and it's nice to be able to have someone that can play inside out," Simpton said. "Tonight, we talked about how once we got going, they couldn't guard us inside. We gotta get the ball inside and good things happen with the ball in her hands." Two-sport star Kaia Diederichs scored 17 points for Colfax, going 7 of 16 from the field. Diederichs suited up for the Colfax girls soccer team the next day, and the Falcons won a third consecutive section championship. The section championship was especially special for Colfax's lone senior, Jade Biittner, who was overtaken with emotion following the game. Biittner has been the floor general on both ends all season and helped set the tone with 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. "This one really means a lot to me," Biittner said as she fought back tears. "There's no other team I'd rather be here with when it was hard for my friends. This especially means a lot because it's my last one." While hanging another section championship banner in the Ron Pucci Pavilion was one of Colfax's goals coming into the season, the job is not finished. The Lady Falcons (30-2) drew the No. 4 seed in the Division II NorCal Regional Tournament and faced No. 13 St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo on Tuesday night. "From now on, it's one game at a time," Simpton said. "I think going into NorCals, sometimes your first round can be your toughest game and you have to prepare like it's your last because it could be. So I just think we'll take it one game at a time. We've got the biggest target on our backs, because everybody wants a piece of us."