Broncos open district play with decisive win

Connor O’Neill and Dylan Hartz each put up 17 points as the LRS Broncos rolled to a solid 62-47 victory over Davenport in the opening round of the Northeast 2B District Tournament.

The win set up a semifinal match up with rival Liberty on Wednesday afternoon. The results were not available at press time.

Head coach Dustan Arlt wants a win in the semis against a tough and scrappy Liberty team. A Wednesday win would almost certainly set up a district championship showdown between the No. 1 seeded St. George’s Dragons and the No. 2 seeded Broncos.

Monday’s win was a good start.

“Dylan and Connor had a good game outside,” he said. “And all three of our posts played a good solid game for us. I would like to get more points off of our bench to help out. A little more scoring, like six or eight points from one of our role players will help.”

Wednesdays semifinal appearance was expected to be a tall order.

“It’s big no matter who you play,” Arlt said. “Liberty is definitely capable of taking it away from us if we don’t play up to our potential”

While Liberty challenges the Broncos with physicality at times, overall they don’t match up well.

“They have trouble matching our guards,” Arlt said. “A win tomorrow and we will be right where we should be. We have to come out and get it done. I’m looking forward to another chance to play St. George’s.”

Hartz finished the game against Davenport with 17 points, five assists and four rebounds. O’Neill turned in 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. Tyler Frederick scored eight and Ryan Whitmore collected seven points. Cort Ruzicka scored six points and Jacob Saetre had four. Matt Leffel scored one.

Last Friday the Broncos won their final league game of the season, defeating Colfax on the road, 46-40.

O’Neill was the scoring leader with 15. Hartz was on his heels with 12 more. Ruzicka added 10 and Frederick provided six points. Kyle Canaday scored three.

Even with a victory, Arlt had higher expectations of the team on Friday.

“We didn’t win as comfortably as I’d like,” he said. “Winning at Colfax is big, but I just wanted to play well. We didn’t finish well in the fourth quarter. We had a real good second quarter and were even in the third.”

The Broncos had a 14-12 lead after the first period and then outscored Colfax 10-4 in the second quarter. Colfax had the fourth quarter edge as the Bulldogs outscored LRS 15-11.

Arlt said his team learned in that contest how important free throws are and will be down the stretch.

“We looked a little slow and tired too at the end,” he said. “If you don’t bring your A-game, teams will be right there during the tournaments.”

Should the boys win on Wednesday, they will likely meet the Dragons in the district championship game on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 5:30 p.m. at Mount Spokane High School.

A loss on Wednesday would put LRS into a Friday game at Mead High School at 5 p.m.

Look for game updates on The Journal’s Facebook page Wednesday night.