Lady Broncos capture important district victory

The 52-39 win over Liberty in the opening round of the Northeast 2B District Tournament was the perfect start for the LRS Lady Broncos.

The win set them up to play yesterday, Feb. 5, in a semifinal match with Colfax. Results of the game were not available at press time.

During the regular season, LRS and Colfax split their league meetings.

Head coach John Galbreath was happy with the final outcome of the Liberty game.

“When it was all said and done, we rebounded well enough, we executed well enough and our defense was good enough to win,” he said. “What I liked is that we didn’t let them make a lot of runs to make the score closer.”

At the end of the half, the Lady Broncos had a 26-17. In the third quarter LRS hauled an 11-10 advantage, staying out in front, and then won the fourth quarter 15-12.

Scoring was well-distributed as the majority of the team contributed. Jenna Bennett set the pace with 12 points.

Tessa Jantz and Mallory Kessler each scored nine. Tommi Swannack tacked on eight points and Dalyn Killian delivered seven.

Randi York added three points and Sydney Nelson and Felicia Ziemer each scored two.

The rebounding was shared as well. Jantz finished with eight and Killian grabbed seven.

Bennett and Swannack each added four. Kessler had three.

Galbreath said the opening win was an important first step.

“It’s always good to get a win in the opening round of the tournament,” he said. “It feels good to do that.”

Tuesday Galbreath said he was focusing his team on Colfax. He felt LRS had a chance to take the win if they corrected a few errors from their loss to Colfax in the final regular season game on Friday, Jan. 31.

“We have definitely got to clean up a few things. Defensively we have got to execute better. We let them get a little too much more than I like to see,” he said.

The Friday loss, 46-35, was a much closer game until the final two minutes when the Lady Bulldogs pulled ahead for a 46-35 win.

“With two minutes to go, we were down four,” Galbreath said. “Then we had two turnovers right there with a minute and a half left.”

The Lady Broncos had 27 turnovers in that game, something the head coach said can’t happen twice.

Having to foul late in the game in an effort to gain possessions also hurt. Colfax was near perfect at the free throw line in the final two minutes, sinking eight.

“There’s no doubt in my mind if we come out and take care of the ball and execute we will be happy with the outcome,” Galbreath said of the Lady Broncos’ Wednesday meeting with the Colfax team.

During last Friday’s game, Kessler led the team with 11 points.

Bennett and Killian each scored seven. Jantz finished with six and Swannack had three.