Placer Beats Colfax! Hip-Hip-Hooray!

YIPPIE! Mark's basketball team beat their rival last week. What an exciting game!
If you appreciate tight games where the underdog wins you would have loved this one!


PLACER STUNS TOP-RANKED COLFAX! 2/8/2008 11:00:01 AM
Register today to print this article
Placer High School’s Earle Crabbe Gym has not been kind to the Colfax Falcons this season. Entering Wednesday night’s match up against the Placer Hillmen (11-15, 4-7), the Falcons (22-1, 9-0) had suffered only one defeat this season which came back on December 27th against the Del Oro Golden Eagles in a game that was played at Earle Crabbe Gym as part of the Kendall Arnett basketball tournament. The Hillmen on the other hand have struggled this season, particularly of late losing six of their last seven games that included a 63-42 loss at Colfax three weeks ago.Fans for both schools packed the gym last night, but Placer’s home crowd, like the team, had upset on their mind. The band, the green and yellow painted faces and painted bodies, and the loud chants coming in unison from Placer’s vocal student body in support of their team gave the game a playoff atmosphere.Despite Colfax tying the game a few times in the second half, Placer held a slim lead for almost the entire game, but down the stretch it was Placer guard JP Mehlhaff who came up big for the Hillmen. First Mehlhaff hit a shot clock-beating three-pointer to put the Hillmen up 57-53 with 28 seconds on the clock. Then with 3.5 seconds left in the game, Mehlhaff was cool as ice knocking down a pair of free throws to put the Hillmen up 59-56. With just seconds left in the game, Colfax threw the ball inbounds to Scott Krizman who raced the length of the court in time to put up a three-pointer before the buzzer sounded. The shot bounced off the iron narrowly missing a chance for Colfax to send the game into overtime giving Placer the stunning 59-56 victory. The Hillmen seemed to feed off the energy from the home crowd by playing well early and not getting into a hole that they couldn’t climb out of. Placer jumped out to an early 8-5 lead when senior guard Eric Edwards hit a three-pointer with 3:44 left in the opening quarter. Following back-to-back three pointers by Edwards in the second quarter, the Hillmen grabbed their biggest lead of the game at 29-16. But after the Edwards three, Colfax began to slowly chip away at the Hillmen lead sparked by the red-hot three-point shooting of senior guard Joel Iventosch who hit a pair of threes in the second, and a pair of threes in the third. The Falcons were finally able to tie the game at 37-37 with 3:16 left in the third when senior forward David Kleppe connected on 1 for 2 from the line. A competitive, hard fought battle by both teams on both ends of the court, kept the game close and the emotions high. Both teams battled hard for every rebound and every loose ball giving all indication that the game wouldn’t be decided until the final minutes. The game would see the score tied at 41-41, 45-45, and 53-53, but Colfax could never quite get over the hump thanks to Mehlhaff’s late game heroics. Mehlhaff scored seven of Placer’s final eight points of the game, including the all important three pointer and two free throws that gave Placer the late game victory.Placer received double figure scoring efforts for the game from seniors Edwards (17 points), Mehlhaff (12 points), and Charlie Harrison (10 points). 6’6” junior center Jeff Patton came off the bench putting in a superior night on the defensive end in addition to his eight points on offense. Patton also led the Hillmen on the boards with nine. Matt Ross and Ryan Miller chipped in with five points each.The game’s leading scorer was Iventosch who seemed to hit everything he put up. Iventosch who poured in 25 points on the night was terrific from behind the arc with his five three-pointers. Placer did a nice job on Krizman, Colfax’s scoring leader for the season with 21 points per game. On this night, Krizman scored just 15 points and only five in the second half.The loss by Colfax marks their first league loss in three season after going 12-0 in 2006, 12-0 in 2007, and now 9-1 in 2008. Placer can finish the season off with a three game winning if they can beat Lincoln at home next Tuesday night. Colfax is headed to the playoffs once again, but it will not be known yet if Placer’s recent wins over Mesa Verde and Colfax will be enough to catapult them into a top 16 spot in the Division III playoff race. Back on February 4th, Placer’s 2-7 league record had them ranked #23 in the CIF rankings.

Mehlhaff (left) scored seven of his 14 points in the fourth (photo by KassubeStudios.photoreflect.co


Edwards (right) had 17 points and was hot beyond the arc (photo by KassubeStudios.photoreflect.com)