Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Davenport junior Kylee Buchanan draws contact during the Lady Gorillas' 66-50 win over Colfax May 27.
DAVENPORT – The Colfax Bulldogs rolled into town looking to put an end to the Lady Gorillas' perfect season and looked like they would stand a fighting chance after the first half. But 16 combined third-quarter points from Darby Soliday and Ellie Telford erased any chance the Bulldogs had of knocking off Davenport, which pulled away for a 66-50 win Thursday, May 27.
Colfax rode the hot hand of Asher Cai, who finished with 25 points, to stay close throughout the first half. The Bulldogs were ahead 12-11 after one quarter. It was the most points Davenport had given up in a game since the season opening tilt against Northwest Christian. The Lady Gorillas won the second quarter 14-9 to take a 25-21 halftime lead, but the door remained open for Colfax.
Soliday, who struggled from the field in the first half with a missed attempt on a wide-open layup and two airballed three-pointers, apparently had had enough. She scored seven points in the first minute of the third quarter to extend Davenport's lead to 11 points, prompting a quick Colfax timeout. The senior would finish with nine points in the quarter. Telford added seven points in the frame, and Davenport never looked back.
"I wanted Ellie to be faster on her post moves, which she was, and I wanted Darby to drive into the key, rather than shot outside so much, which she did," Davenport head coach Stacia Soliday said. "We made shots that way."
Telford had her second double-double of the season with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Soliday had 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists. No player for Colfax scored more than seven points, besides Cai.
"We just didn't match up well to start the second half, and they came out and hit a couple shots," Colfax head coach Mike Dorman said. "Momentum just seemed to go away from us from there. I came out with a zone defense in the second half because I was concerned about some foul trouble, and that really hurt us. We switched to back to a man real quick."
Offensively, Colfax had the most success any team has had against Davenport's zone defense, so Stacia Soliday switched to a man-to-man defense, which helped the Lady Gorillas go on their run.
"I wasn't happy that we lost track of people so that they had wide-open shots, but they are good shooters, so they were going to make some of them," Soliday said.
Davenport dominated on the glass, outrebounding Colfax 44-25 and 20-8 on the offensive boards.
"Their size bothered us, especially on the inside," Dorman said. "That's a tough matchup for us, size-wise."
The Gorillas then traveled to northwest Spokane for a date with the St. George's Dragons and won a defensive-minded affair 39-30 Tuesday, June 1. Telford scored 13 points and Soliday had 12 points for Davenport, which won despite shooting just 30.9% from the field and 1-for-15 from three.
Once again, Davenport's defense won the day, holding St. George's to 32.1% shooting and forcing 18 turnovers. Soliday added five steals to aide the defensive effort.
Davenport moved to 6-0 with the two wins.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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