Broncos start fast, run out of gas against Dragons

In the first half Saturday, it was all LRS. The players, the coaches and the fans were energized as the team went after the powerhouse St. George’s with reckless abandon.

Dylan Hartz sped up the offense and ignited an early firestorm with four huge three-point buckets. At one stage in the first half LRS had a 12-point lead over the undefeated Dragons.

At the end of the first quarter, LRS was up 21-18. At the half, the Dragons quickly closed their deficit in the final minute with a couple quick buckets, but still trailed the Broncos 34-28.

The second half was another story from the opening moments. St. George’s adjusted and its defense took away many of the Broncos’ scoring opportunities. They held LRS to single digit scoring in each of the final two quarters.

On offense Dexter Sienko and Erick Muelheims woke up and brought their offense. Sienko would score 24 and Muelheims another 20 in the game. They outscored LRS 32-13 in the second half.

“We played so hard and so fast we were dead coming out,” head coach Dustan Arlt said of the second half. “We ran out of gas. The open looks we did get, we missed. We shot free throws poorly.”

The Broncos were 2 of 9 from the free throw line Saturday. The night before in a wild one at Reardan the Broncos converted 25 of 30 free throws in a win.

“A lot of things were working against us,” Arlt said. “Confidence wise, we made strides against them. Our plan was to lay up tempo against them. Walking up and getting into a half court set can get tough against them.”

Defensively, Arlt said the Broncos need to be more aggressive down low against the physical Sienko.

“We know he is going to bull his way in, we need to be in position and take charges,” Arlt said. “Sienko had his way. When you rebound off your own missed free throw and go back and dunk it…”

Arlt doesn’t like the final outcome, but he was pleased with the opening half and its energy.

“The first half was even better than I really would have hoped for,” he said. “It’s a little disappointing we missed our foul shots and some cals were going against us. We were in it that first half and showed them we are not afraid and we’re not going to back down. We showed our kids what we need to do to beat them.”

Hartz finished with 20 points, including six 3-pointers. He had eight rebounds and three steals.

Tyler Frederick scored 12, and finished six-of-seven shooting from the field. He also had four rebounds. Connor O’Neill scored eight points, provided seven assists and two steals and grabbed four rebounds. Cort Ruzicka scored five and grabbed four rebounds.

Friday the Reardan Indians made things interesting as the game was tight most of the four quarters, followed by a power outage with one minute to play.

The Broncos came home 65-58 winners behind the scoring efforts of Hartz and O’Neill. Both guards racked up 20 points as the Indians slammed the door on the inside play.

The Broncos had a seven point lead with 1:04 left in the game when the lights went out. The first estimate from Avista was a 45-minute repair time. A short while later the power company said it might be 1 a.m. before things returned to normal.

Both teams were prepared to meet in Reardan Monday to play the final minute of the game. They were headed to the lockers when the lights came back on. Some Reardan players were already in their street clothes, according to Arlt.

With power restored, the players were given time to warm up again and the Broncos held their lead and took home an important league win.

The first half of the outing wasn’t what Arlt expected. Reardan ran out to a 22-13 lead in the first quarter and took the half time advantage, 35-32.

LRS started working their way through things in the third quarter with a 13-10 effort. They took control in the fourth, outscoring Reardan, 20-13.

“It was a little tougher than I wanted,” Arlt said.

Skylar Peone was the biggest source of the headache. He scored 26 points for the Indians, including a quartet of threes in the first quarter.

“In the second half what really saved us was our free throws,” Arlt said. “We were 25 of 30 on free throws, but 4 of 21 on 3-pointers. I don’t think we played bad. We just didn’t shoot very well.”

Hartz finished with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. O’Neill’s 20 points were complemented by three steals and three assists. Frederick had eight rebounds and 10 points. Ryan Whitmore scored nine and logged three assists and two steals. Ruzicka finished with four rebounds and two points. Kyle Canaday had two points, two assists and two steals. Jacob Saetre scored two points.

This Friday the second place Broncos have a big game with Liberty. The league spoiler is coming to the Gilson Gym and Arlt knows its an important contest.

“If we beat Liberty we will have a two game lead over them in league. This has really turned into a rivalry game. They are trying to make a jump and we’re trying not to let them.”