Broncos start season strong with a victory

The LRS Broncos varsity team started their basketball season on Saturday, Dec. 6, against the Columbia-Burbank Coyotes. After four quarters of play, the Broncos would come out on top, beating their opponent 62-40 after an impressive second half.

At the beginning of the game the team had a difficult time getting points on the board.

“It started a little rusty and a little rough, but when you’ve practiced five times together you don’t expect it to be perfect at the start,” head coach Dustan Arlt said. “It was tough for us, they came out and pressed us right away and put a lot of pressure.”

Arlt explained the pressure was good for the team and will help them prepare for future games. He also thought some of the players were nervous for their season opening game on varsity.

At the end of the first quarter the Broncos trailed the Coyotes 16-9. In the second quarter, the Broncos put up 17 points to the Coyotes 15 and were down 31-26 at halftime.

“Second quarter wasn’t great but it was a lot better, we were able to keep it close and get it to five at halftime,” Arlt explained. “The second half it was pretty impressive and nice to see us to play that well this early.”

Coming out of the locker room the Broncos took control of the game, scoring 19 points and holding the Coyotes to six points by the end of the quarter.

“I felt our defense was a little more intense and that created some fast break and some easy offense for us,” Arlt said. “And then our half court offense got going a little bit and everything just started clicking and flowing.”

The boys did not let up during the fourth quarter either, shutting down the Coyote offense and putting up 17 points of their own. Their opponent secured only three points by the end of the quarter.

In the opening minutes of the third, the Broncos were still down five. Arlt said the boys went on a 32-2 scoring streak. The Broncos outscored their opponent 36-9 in the second half.

Arlt said the entire team contributed to Saturday night’s victory over the Coyotes. With Cort Ruzicka scoring 12 points and Jacob Saetre working hard at point guard, the starters and the auxiliaries all contributed significantly to the end result of the game.

“Some kids that maybe didn’t have a great first half turned around and played a lot better the second half,” Arlt explained. “And we got really positive contributions from just about everyone who played.”

Marc Wilbers proved he has what it takes to play at the varsity level, putting up four points from the paint and fighting for rebounds on both offense and defense. The 6’9” senior also had three blocks.

“Marc came in and had three blocks and that kind of got us going and the crowd kind of cheers for the tall exchange student,” Arlt said. “So that kind of got everyone excited and everyone started playing a little bit better.”

With the first game over the Broncos look to continue polishing their play before their first league game against Liberty.

They hosted the Medical Lake Cardinals on Tuesday night in a game that Arlt said would challenge the boys.

“Medical Lake they’re almost three times the size of school we are, they’re a really big A school,” Arlt explained. “They’re going to bring us a lot of athleticism, which that’ll challenge us.”

He said Northwest Christian played the Cardinals earlier this season and, after a close contest, the Crusaders were able to finish the Cardinals with a 13-point lead.

The Broncos also face Odessa-Harrington on Friday before their first league match-up, Liberty.

Liberty has played one game this season and though it was a weaker opponent, Arlt said they are a favorite in the league.

“On paper they’re the clear cut favorite, you could probably ask the other 10 coaches in the league and I think everyone would pick them number one,” Arlt said.