[ t o u r n e y t o w n . c o m -- Colfax 58, Cle Elum 39]

Colfax -- Burns 0-0 0-0 0, Fender 1-5 0-0 3, Fowler 3-5 0-0 7, Vuletich 0-3 1-2 1, Bravard 3-13 0-0 6, Van Tine 3-5 3-5 9, Gylling 0-0 0-0 0, Burke 1-2 0-0 2, Watts 8-17 4-6 21, Dennison 0-0 0-0 0, Swan 3-10 0-0 7, Maj 0-0 0-0 0, Team 2. Totals 23-61 8-13 58.

Cle Elum -- Strom 1-3 0-1 2, Renfro 0-1 0-0 0, LaFarr 2-6 1-4 6, Spear 1-2 0-0 2, Berner 0-0 0-0 0, Glondo 0-2 0-1 0, Malcolm 1-3 0-0 2, Lanphere 4-11 2-6 13, Christian 5-14 2-4 14, Swenson 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 14-47 5-16 39.

Colfax

Cle Elum

3-point goals--C 4-9 (Fender 1-1, Swan 1-1, Fowler 1-2, Watts 1-3, Bravard 0-2), CE 6-20 (Lanphere 3-8, Christian 2-3, LaFarr 1-4, Strom 0-1, Spear 0-1, Malcolm 0-1, Glondo 0-2). Rebounds--C 45 (Watts 9, Swan 8), CE 37 (Christian 10). Assists--C 10 (Vuletich 4), CE 7 (Christian 4). Steals--C 12 (Vuletich 4, Watts 4), CE 3 (Malcolm 2). Blocked shots--C 1, CE 4 (Swenson 2). Fouled out--None. Total fouls--C 18, CE 13. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--C 13, CE 18.

Cle Elum finishes with seventh-place trophy

By SCOTT SPRUILL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

For the first time in eight years, Cle Elum will have to hunt down the key to its impressively cluttered trophy case.

And even though the enthusiasm for that achievement was tempered a bit by a loss to Colfax on Saturday, the Warriors were a smiling bunch when presented with seventh-place state hardware in the SunDome.

"We're real happy with it. We've got something to add to the trophy case now and that was our goal," said senior Rudi Christian. "I mean, it would've been nice to get fourth but that's a good team. They won it last year."

And Colfax played like a defending champion.

Switching away from its zone defense to man-to-man in the second half, the Bulldogs held Cle Elum to 15 points after the break and pulled away for a 58-39 victory and fourth-place trophy.

The Warriors (19-8), who captured conference and district titles and won 13 of their last 15 games, earned the school's 11th girls state trophy and five of those are of the first-place variety.

Coach Ryan Hill is hoping the success of this team has the program returning to its lofty status as perennial contenders.

"We're building the program back up, and this team has done some great groundwork," he said. "This tournament has got a lot of great teams and our losses were to two of them, Tonasket and Colfax, plus we played Brewster (in December). Those are the programs we're measuring ourselves against and we're getting to that level."

Once again the tandem of Christian and junior Heather Lanphere led the way for Cle Elum with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Christian finished with 51 points in four state games and Lanphere had 49.

They combined for 20 points and four 3-pointers in the first half and the Warriors were within 30-24 at the intermission. But Colfax's defensive switch limited Cle Elum to two field goals in the third period and six in the second half.

Despite losing its top scorer, Natalie Shaw, six weeks ago to a knee injury, Colfax had designing on repeating this week but was derailed by an exhausting double-overtime loss to Brewster in the quarterfinals.

"In the second half, that's the Colfax team we knew we had," said coach Corey Baerlocher, the programs' third coach in three years. "We're the only 1A team to beat (championship finalists) Tonasket and Brewster this season and it's a crying shame we're not in there. This is a great team -- they finished with 26 wins. And with only two seniors, we're going to reload and be back here."

Junior guard Kristin Watts, who missed last year's championship run with a knee injury, led the Bulldogs with 21 points, nine rebounds and four steals. With a 3-pointer and seven points, she helped Colfax outscore Cle Elum 13-6 in the third quarter.

Although Colfax outrebounded the Warriors 45-37, Christian gathered a game-high 10 rebounds. She also had four assists.

"They got away from us in the second half, but it was still a good tournament for us," she said. "We had some players from our past (championship) teams come and talk to us and it was motivating. We gave it everything every day."

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