Late in the second quarter, with Almira/Coulee-Hartline already trailing reigning and champion-to-be Colton by 17 points en route to an even more lopsided blowout, a Colton rooter yelled out, "How did you beat St. John(-Endicott)? Why are you even HERE?"

It was a question, frankly, any team in the Wildcats' path this season must have wondered.

The Wildcats' 64-34 title-game wipeout of a good ACH team -- one whose first-round tourney victory had been over SJE, the one team to upset Colton this season -- was typical of their scorched-earth march through the Class 1B girls state tournament.

Colton roasted four opponents by an average margin of 42.2 points, largely because of a high-scoring, 3-point-firing offense and a voracious defense. The Wildcats set a tournament record for least points allowed (89 points over the four rounds, or 22.25 per), allowing as many as 10 points in a quarter only twice.

They also set single-tournament records for most 3-pointers made (33) and most attempted (113).

"Obviously, we played very well today," Wildcats coach Clark Vining said after his team put the finishing touches on its 25-1 season, coming on the heels of third, second and first-place finishes. "We do take a lot of 3-pointers,
though we don't always make seven in a half."

That's what they did in the first half in building a 38-15 lead. Mollie Kraner and Haley Moser each sank four of the Wildcats' final total of 11 3-pointers, with Moser, a sophomore, finishing with 15 points and succeeding her older sister Kelsey -- the lone senior in the Colton lineup -- as the tournament MVP.

"That's great," Vining said when told of the younger Moser's selection by the media as the tourney's top player. "We've got another Moser coming up next year, too. One graduates and we get another coming in as a freshman."

The next one, Jenna, is the younger sister of this year's two stars.

Vining grinned. "Oh, she's good."

And the beat goes on. And, very likely the beatdowns as well.