Broncos prep for key games

The boys and girls basketball teams can improve their standings in league this weekend with key victories as the end of the regular season looms on the horizon with five games remaining.

The teams host St. George’s on Friday and travel to Colfax Saturday.

Last week, the game schedule was disrupted when winter weather prevented the Springdale games. Those contests are now planned for Tuesday, Jan. 31, in Lind. The Broncos only game was against Northwest Christian last Saturday. The Lady Broncos fell 55-31 and the boys were defeated 75-45.

Both head coaches, Randy Heidenreich and Dustan Arlt agree that three days of winter interruptions likely contributed to the losses. Both teams have made major improvements since the start of the New Year and have begun to turn around their seasons.

“It didn’t help us prepare. Some kids didn’t get to touch the ball each day,” Arlt said of the winter storms.

“It didn’t help not to practice together for three days,” Heidenreich added.

For the girls, Davis Killian led the team scoring with eight points. Andrea Bennett added six points. Jenna Bennett, Kaytlin Phillips and Kailey York each scored four points. Brooke Pichette scored three and Cathrine Hentges has two.

“We played pretty well and did a few good things,” Heidenreich said. “We were able to run our half court press break into our offense. They switched to man-to-man defense and they weren’t as good as a man to man team. We just didn’t take good shots.”

Looking past the remaining league schedule, Heidenreich explained that it won’t matter where is team finishes in the standings as long as the players are at the best at the start of the Bi-County Tournament in early February. The teams that finish in seventh through tenth place will meet in a loser out tournament qualifier. From there on the teams that advance will be in a double elimination bracket.

On the boys side, the NWC contest proved to be a difficult outing.

Dylan Hartz led the scoring with 13 points. He also had four assists and four steals. Colby Starring had 11 points.

“Colby hit three threes. He’s doing well and averaged 13 points a game against Davenport, Reardan and Northwest Christian. He’s the second leading scorer on the team. He really stepped it up,” Arlt said.

Tyler Frederick scored seven points during the game. Connor O’Neill added five and Jake Dewald had three. Jesse Miller and Chris Steinmetz scored two and Brandon Knodel and Drew Hartz each had one.

“This is a big weekend,” Arlt said. “If we split at least, we will be pretty safe, getting into the top six.”