Broncos rebound during second week on the hardwood

In their second week of play the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos took down two of their three opponents, beating Tekoa-Rosalia and St. George’s at home and losing to Colfax on the road.

In Tuesday, Dec. 16, night’s game against the Timberwolves the Broncos beat one of their weaker league opponents, according to head coach Dustan Arlt.

The Broncos took the lead early against their opponent.

“I liked our start, we jumped out ahead 20-6 in the first quarter,” Arlt explained. “We took it right to them right away.”

After getting an early lead the Broncos had a difficult time extending it.

“We got a lot of fouls called on us,” Arlt said.

The Broncos were able to pull further ahead of the Timberwolves in the fourth quarter and concluded the game with a score of 70-40.

Dallas Killian led the Broncos in scoring with 12 points in his first full varsity game. Marc Wilbers and Cort Ruzicka both had 11 points for the Broncos that night. Additionally Wyatt Roettger, Jacob Saetre and Dylan Becker each had eight points.

The Broncos crashed the boards hard against their Tuesday night opponent, out rebounding them 41 to 20.

“They didn’t have a lot of height,” Arlt explained.

He also said the Broncos didn’t shoot well from the perimeter and would need to work on improving that for tougher opponents.

The Broncos then traveled to Colfax for a difficult away game.

“Colfax is probably the toughest place I think to win on the road,” Arlt explained.

The combination of the atmosphere in the Colfax gym, the skill of the Colfax boys and the differences in officiating led to a difficult evening for the Broncos.

“It wasn’t so much fouls getting called on us this year we just got called for a ton of travels,” Arlt explained.

Compounding problems for the Broncos that evening was poor free throw shooting.

The Broncos shot seven for 19 from the extra point line.

“Coming into the year I thought they were probably the second or third best team in our league behind Liberty,” Arlt said.

The Broncos were down two points against the Bulldogs at the start of the fourth quarter despite the turnovers and troubles from the foul line.

Arlt said the Bulldogs got hot in the fourth and after the Broncos got down they didn’t compete as well.

“We’ve got to get a little mentality tougher,” Arlt explained.

The game got away from the Broncos in the fourth quarter and they lost to the Bulldogs 56-44.

Ruzicka led the Bronco scoring for the evening with nine points. Kyle Canaday had eight points and Saetre put up seven.

Arlt said the team played hard but no one stepped up to carry the game, he also said he was hopeful for the next game because the Broncos were able to keep the game close despite their struggles.

In their final game of the week the Broncos hosted the St. George’s Dragons.

“They’re kind of like us, they lost four starters like us,” he explained.

The Dragons faced Liberty the same night the Broncos faced the Bulldogs and Arlt said both the Dragons and the Broncos looked tired during the game.

Free throw shooting improved for the Broncos during their Saturday night game and they were able to hit 10 for 12 during the evening.

Matt Leffel helped give the Broncos a lift during the fourth quarter when some of the starters were beginning to tire, scoring all of his six points in the fourth. Arlt said Becker also played his best game against the Dragons and hit big shots when the Broncos needed them.

Roettger was the third leading scorer with seven points along with nine rebounds.

The Broncos will not play again until Jan. 2 when they travel to Dayton and Jan. 3 when they host Kettle Falls.

Over the break Arlt said the team is going to focus on minimizing turnovers. The Broncos will also work on adding defensive options and improving their man-to-man play.

“If we do that we’re going to be a pretty tough team and we’ll compete with just about anyone,” Arlt said.

The Broncos host the Kettle Falls Bulldogs on Saturday Jan. 3.

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.