Broncos, Bear Creek to meet in regional dual

When the Broncos took the court against Northwest Christian on Monday, the meaning of game was really about geography. The two teams had already earned the right to compete this weekend in the single-game regional tournament to determine who will advance to next week’s state basketball tournament in Spokane.

The winner of Monday’s game would travel to Sunnyside as the number three seed to regionals. The loser would go to Mountlake Terrace as the number four seed to regionals. Unfortunately for the Broncos, they fell to NWC for the first time this season, 78-73, and are now preparing for a long Saturday morning road trip and an afternoon meeting with Bear Creek in Mountlake Terrace.

Monday’s battle was a crazy, wild display of team offense from both the Broncos and the Crusaders.

“It was a pretty good offensive game to watch,” head coach Dustan Arlt said. “It was really the best game we have played against them all year, at least offensively. They shot better than I have ever seen them shoot. They killed us on offensive rebounds and had a lot of put backs in the second half that really hurt us.”

The game was close from start to finish and came down to a fourth quarter run by the Broncos that resulted in a tie game and forced an overtime. Dylan Hartz was a driving force in the fourth quarter, posting 14 points, including four three-point buckets in the period to keep the team in the game.

In overtime, the Broncos went up by three points, before finding themselves on their heels and trailing as time ran out.

“Really it’s the first time all year we trailed them,” Arlt said. “They made everything. Then they switched to man-to-man in the second half and they just pushed us around.”

Hartz led the scoring with 21 points and he had six rebounds and six assists. Tyler Frederick was a force underneath and generated 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Colby Starring had 15 points. Connor O’Neill added nine points and six assists. Ryan Whitmore had four points and five blocked shots. Cort Ruzicka and Kyle Canaday each scored three.

In an earlier 2B sub-regional outing on Saturday, the Broncos rolled to a 60-52 win against Walla Walla Valley Academy after trailing 17-13 at the end of the first quarter.

That game was for the right to advance to regional play after the Broncos fell on Friday in a sub regional semi final against St. George’s, 57-43.

“Against St. George’s most of our kids played pretty intimidated,” Arlt said. “Cort and Dylan both played pretty well. Everyone else had sub par games. We shot 26 percent and they shot over 57 percent and that was the biggest difference.”

Against WWVA, the Broncos were squaring off against the number one seed from District 9.

“What saved us was turnovers. We forced 24 to our 14,” Arlt said. “We shot better, but still only 38 percent to their 50 percent.”

O’Neill led the team scoring against WWVA with 18, Hartz delivered 16. Ruzicka provided seven points while Starring and Whitmore each had six. Frederick finished with four and Canaday had three.

O’Neill was busy throughout the game with seven steals and five rebounds. Hartz had nine assists and three steals. Starring served up three assists and Whitmore had 12 rebounds and four steals.

Bear Creek will look similar to the Broncos on the court this Saturday. According to Arlt, they lost to LaConner in the district title game.

“They are similar to us and are guard oriented,” he said. “They are not as big as us. They like to press and play a lot of zone. We like to play zone a lot too, but teams don’t normally do it a lot against us.”

Arlt said he feels the Broncos match up well with Bear Creek. One deciding factor could be how the Broncos handle the long road trip.

“We are battle tested,” he said. “I don’t think anything is going to shock us or just get us overwhelmed.”

The game is slated for 4:30 p.m. For driving directions, check out The Journal’s Facebook page.