Broncos: To meet NWC at State

Dustan Arlt first went to the state basketball tournament as a player on the Ritzville High School roster. Then as an assistant coach for Lind-Ritzville he joined then head coach Dwight Pflugrath at the Hardwood Classic.

This time Arlt makes his debut as a head coach at the WIAA 2B Hardwood Classic in the Spokane Arena with the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos.

The Broncos have battled all year and delivered a list of impressive wins. They have provided high school basketball fans with more than their fair share of dramatic moments including heart stopping comebacks and nerve racking overtime sessions.

All of that was present Saturday during the regional tournament outing. The afternoon game against Bear Creek was played in Mountlake Terrace, after a long bus ride punctuated by a stop on Snoqualamie Pass so snow chains could be put on the bus tires.

When the Broncos opened against Bear Creek, a few early mistakes allowed Bear Creek to run up a 21-12 first quarter lead. The lead wasn’t enough to slow the quickly rebounding Broncos as they marched back and took control in the second and third quarters.

They went on to have a notable lead in the fourth quarter before Bear Creek made it interesting and forced overtime. The contest was tied 49-49 at the end of regulation. After that, the Broncos rolled up their collective sleeves and put the hammer down, dominating overtime, 16-6 for a 65-55 victory.

The win sets up a first round outing in the 2B State Championships today at 12:15 p.m. against Northwest Christian. This is the fifth time this season the two Bi-County teams will do battle. The Broncos won the first three and then fell in their fourth meeting during the sub-regional tournament.

Arlt is happy with the state tournament draw. There was a chance the Broncos could have ended up facing the powerhouse St. George’s Dragons in the first round. Fortunately Morton-White Pass was selected to meet the Dragons, setting up the Broncos’ lunch date with the NWC Crusaders.

Going in, Arlt is hopeful the sub-regional loss to NWC will have the Broncos focused on the importance of a first day victory.

“I hope that helps motivate the kids a little more,” he said. “Their sixth man got a flagrant foul in their regional game. As far as I know he won’t be able to play.”

That will also help the Broncos as the Crusaders first man off the bench gave them fits in the second half of the sub-regional contest, grabbing an arm full of offensive rebounds.

“There’s not a lot of secrets,” he said of the five-time opponent. “We have got to shut them down. And, shooting in the arena is different. It’s a big open environment.”

Arlt went into the week expecting to spend Monday and Tuesday working extra hard in practice, and then using Wednesday for a cool down and walk-through.

“Our kids have played in tough games and we are ready,” he said. “I don’t think they will be intimidated.”

With a Thursday win, the Broncos will advance to a semifinal round game against the winner of St. George’s and Morton-White Pass.

Arlt expects the Dragons to advance. While the Broncos haven’t been able to snare a victory against the Dragons this season, Arlt knows his team can do just that if everyone shows up at the right time and the shooting percentages are better than the sub-regional game when the Broncos were hitting 30 percent from the field.

“We’re going to have to beat them sooner or later,” Arlt said.

Against Bear Creek, the first quarter saw the Broncos struggling a bit on defense.

“Defensively we made some mental mistakes,” Arlt said. “We were not helping off the posts and let them drive and get easy threes. They score in bunches. Dylan (Hartz) hit a three at the end of the first quarter and it was a pretty big boost.”

In the second quarter the Broncos took a 10-6 edge and then in the third rolled to a 13-4 effort.

Bear Creek battled back late in the fourth to gain the tie when they outscored the Broncos 18-14.

With 1:30 to play, the Broncos found themselves trailing 48-44.

After a bit of chaos on the Broncos side of the court, Connor O’Neill launched a three that didn’t fall, but Hartz tipped the rebound to Colby Starring who sank a three from the left wing.

O’Neill snares a steal and then feeds Hartz who delivers the ball to Cort Ruzicka for a two-point effort and a one point lead. Ruzicka was fouled on the play but couldn’t convert the front end of a one-on-one effort.

With 13 seconds to play, the chaos continued and Bear Creek ended up with the ball. Ryan Whitmore, attempting to stop a scoring threat, picked up his fifth foul of the game as time ran out. The Bear Creek player went to the line for two free throws. With an empty court he missed the first one and sank the second to tie the game.

With two and a half minutes remaining in overtime the game was tied again, 53-53, when the Broncos went on a run, primarily at the free throw line.

As a team, they sank nine of 10 free throw attempts in the extra period. Prior to that, they were five of 13 from the line in regulation. The Broncos made just one free throw in the first half.

For the game, it was a big outing for Starring who led the team with 18 points. For the game, Starring sank five three point buckets and hauled in five rebounds.

Tyler Frederick scored 12 and had five rebounds. O’Neill scored 13 and picked Bear Creek’s pockets for five steals. Hartz finished with seven points and 10 assists. Ruzicka scored 11 and grabbed five rebounds. Whitmore finished with four points and five rebounds.

The state championship games will be cybercast on http://www.cybersportsusa.com.