Broncos ready for St. George’s, In control of second place in league

There are three important league games this week. The Broncos took care of the first one Tuesday night with a solid win over the Davenport Gorillas, 62-39. Next up is a Friday road trip to Reardan, followed by a home contest with the defending state champions: the St. George’s Dragons.

Head coach Dustan Arlt wants his team to be on a successful winning streak going into Saturday night’s game. The momentum and home court advantage will be important. As of last Saturday, the Dragons have won 41 straight.

“No B team has beat them in two seasons,” Arlt said. “This weekend we need to compete with them. We have to be in it in the fourth quarter to at least have a chance. We want to be in it at the end and really get the crowd going. When you have won as many games as they have, they won’t want to give one up.”

The Broncos are in second place in the Northeast 2B League, having defeated Springdale last Friday and Colfax on Saturday. The Davenport victory puts the Broncos’ record at 11-1 overall and 7-1 in league behind the undefeated Dragons.

Friday LRS rolled to a 66-41 win over Springdale after trailing, 16-10, at the end of the first quarter. A 20-3 second quarter run by the Broncos let Springdale know that it wasn’t their night for an upset.

In the third quarter, the Broncos extended the scoring margin with a 21-10 effort. That gave LRS a 51-29 lead going into the final quarter.

Connor O’Neill was solid in the scoring bracket as he led the team with 17 and tallied three three-point buckets. Tyler Frederick delivered 13 points and Dylan Hartz had 10.

Ryan Whitmore put up nine points. Cort Ruzicka and Logan Morley each scored five. Jacob Saetre had four points and Kyle Canaday added three.

“Springdale is a streaky team,” Arlt said. “They are physical, rough and rugged. It was a good win.”

Arlt would have preferred a better first quarter start, noting that the Broncos missed easy lay-ins and had opportunities to take control even earlier.

“Having won three of their last four games, Springdale came out hot and made some tough shots,” Arlt said. “We just missed shots right away.”

For the night, O’Neill turned in good numbers. His 17 points was complemented by seven assists and five steals. Hartz collected five rebounds and three assists. Frederick grabbed eight rebounds and Whitmore had six. Saetre finished with five.

There was more defense than offense on the court Saturday when the Colfax Bulldogs visited.

While LRS won by 14, it was a much slower scoring pace than normal.

The Broncos’ defense put the clamp down on Colfax in a 44-30 win. Colfax scored in single digits during the final three quarters after putting 11 points on the board in the opening period.

“Offensively, I thought we gave away as many as 12 points,” Arlt said. “We made just one 3-pointer. It was our third game in four days and that’s pretty tough.”

The Broncos were originally scheduled to play Northwest Christian on Tuesday, but the game was moved to Wednesday due to weather.

While Colfax didn’t pose its typical offensive threat, the Bulldogs still played solid defense.

“Colfax played pretty hard and aggressive,” Arlt said. “They always play good defense.”

At the end of the first half, the Broncos found themselves with a two-point lead, 20-18. The third quarter would prove the turning point as LRS cranked in 18 points while Colfax tallied six.

Free throws were a positive for LRS, something that had slipped a bit in recent games. The team was 17 of 20 from the line.

“It offset our lack of field goals,” Arlt said. “Ryan really stepped up at the free throw line and Dylan and Connor made all of theirs.”

Back on defense, the Broncos only allowed two field goals in the second half, both in the third quarter. The Bulldogs’ six points in the fourth came at the free throw line. For the night, the Broncos held Colfax to nine of 46 shooting.

Frederick was the scoring leader for LRS with 12 points. He grabbed a nice collection of rebounds with seven.

O’Neill scored 10 points. Hartz had eight and five rebounds. Whitmore finished with seven points. Ruzicka picked up five points and six rebounds. Saetre scored two.