Improved Tigerhawks come up short in season opener

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo’s girls basketball team went from not playing at all two seasons ago to finishing 0-22 last season.

But with a talented crop of freshmen coming in and key returners back from last year’s team, the Tigerhawks showed Friday in their season opener against Southeast Warren that things, at the very least, will be much better this season.

“All of our kids have one year of varsity experience at the most,” first-year Colfax-Mingo head girls basketball coach Michaela Graffunder said. “I’m happy with how they played, but I am disappointed in the ending.”

Southeast Warren defeated the Tigerhawks 48-14 last season. But this year was much different.

Blain Houseman, one of the three freshmen who started the game for C-M, buried a triple for the first points of the season. But Southeast Warren led 9-5 after one quarter.

Katelyn Steenhoek, one of last year’s returning starters, canned an elbow jumper to open the second and then back-to-back 3-pointers by Isabelle Foglesong pushed the Tigerhawks in front 13-11. A Foglesong jumper made it 15-14 and the game was tied at 15-all at halftime.

Colfax-Mingo (0-1) scored the first 10 points of the third to go up 25-15. Houseman and Foglesong opened the second half with back-to-back treys. The run ended with a bucket inside from Victoria Woods and a pull-up jumper by Foglesong, who scored a team-best 13 points in her prep debut.

“That was good to see,” Graffunder said about the 10-0 run. “There were moments where I could see the improvement. I also saw things we need to work on, which are obviously ball handling and passing.”

The Warhawks ended the third with four straight points from Jessica Lillig and the run extended to 10-0 into the fourth as Lillig scored one more time inside and Kiara Wallace buried a 3 and made a layup.

Both Wallace buckets came off C-M turnovers, which was the Tigerhawks’ issue in the final frame.

“We turned it over too much in the fourth,” Graffunder said. “I thought we did a great job breaking the press but then we’d turn it over in the half court.”

Dakota Allen sank a jumper to end the run with 6 minutes to play in the game, but the Warhawks scored the next seven to go up by six.

Allen’s 3 made 33-30 with 1:24 left, but Wallace sunk a pair of free throws to put her team back up five.

Houseman banked in a runner with 30 seconds left. The Tigerhawks eventually got the ball back with 16 seconds on the clock but traveled to give the ball back to their visitors.

Southeast Warren gave it right back to Colfax-Mingo though. But Foglesong got the ball on the Warhawks’ side of the court with around 5 seconds left and only had time for a last-second heave from nearly half court that was off target.

While it came in a loss, the 32 points scored were more than C-M scored in any game last season. The Tigerhawks also connected on six shots from 3 after making only nine all of last winter.

“We took a bunch of 3s tonight,” Graffunder said. “I always tell them if they feel good and are making them, then go ahead and take them. We work a lot on shooting in practice. But after you miss two or three, it’s time to start looking inside.”

Foglesong added six rebounds, two assists and four steals to her night and Houseman contributed eight points, three rebounds, five assists and two steals in her prep debut.

Allen chipped in seven points, three rebounds and two steals. Lydia Hansen finished with three rebounds and two steals and McKinley Bucklin grabbed two boards in their prep debuts.

The Tigerhawks shot 35 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 16 times. They averaged more than 30 turnovers per contest last season.

Lillig led Southeast Warren with 13 points and five steals and Wallace put in 10 points. Hayden Ruble grabbed 11 rebounds and swiped six steals.

Notes: The most points Colfax-Mingo scored last year was 25. … The Warhawks won the game by three and had a seven-point advantage in made free throws. Southeast Warren was 9-of-16 from the free-throw line in the game. … The Tigerhawks applied an effective full-court press during the contest. Graffunder saw from last year’s game that her team could take advantage of some things. “I think they did a good job with it at points,” Graffunder said. “We did a good job with the traps for our first time running it.” … The Tigerhawks’ starting lineup featured three freshmen, one sophomore and junior Mallory Sipma, who could not play varsity basketball as a freshman.