League play concludes for the Lady Broncos on Jan. 31

After a heartbreaking loss to Reardan on Saturday, Jan. 17, the Lady Broncos rallied to take down two non-league opponents and one league rival last week.

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, the Lady Broncos hosted the Connell High School Lady Eagles.

After the four quarters the Lady Broncos took the win 66-52 in a game that head coach John Galbreath said went well for his team.

“I think we shared the ball extremely well,” he explained.

With three players scoring double digits for the Lady Broncos, and three more very near double digits, the Lady Eagles struggled to shut down all of Lind-Ritzville/Sprague’s scoring options.

Tessa Jantz led the scoring efforts with 17 points while Tommi Swannack put up 12. Mallory Kessler scored 10.

Madison Harder scored an additional nine points for the team. Jenna Bennett put up seven and Peyton Curtis recorded six points.

Galbreath said the Lady Broncos had a rough patch of play during the previous week but have pushed through and started sharing the ball very well on the court, which is evident in the scorebook.

The Lady Broncos then traveled to face their one league opponent of the week, the Liberty Lady Lancers, and they continued their week’s victorys.

The Lady Broncos came out early, Galbreath said, and by the end of the first quarter were up 17-10 over their opponents.

The Lady Broncos continued to have balanced scoring throughout the night, with four players scoring double digit figures this time.

Jantz led her team in scoring again, this time with 18 points. She also pulled the responsibility of defending one of the Lady Lancers’ leading scorer, Christine Denny, who put up 31 points for her team. Jantz also secured 10 rebounds for the Lady Broncos.

Kessler added another 15 points while Swannack contributed 13 and Bennett added 11 points from the field.

“We can be doing that every night,” Galbreath explained.

The Lady Broncos finished the Lady Lancers 72-59 despite the efforts of Denny.

To finish the week the Lady Broncos then faced another non-league opponent, the Freeman Lady Scotties.

The Lady Broncos got off to a crushing start and held their opponents to single digit scoring for three of the four quarters of play.

“I thought we really executed what we needed to offensively,” Galbreath explained.

He said sometimes there can be confusion with the plays but on Saturday night the Lady Broncos were able to run their offense well and get the looks they wanted.

“It’s good that finally here at the end of the year we can call a play and we can go out and execute it,” Galbreath said

This week the Lady Broncos faced the Tekoa-Rosalia Lady Timberwolves on Tuesday. They will host the Colfax Lady Bulldogs at their last home game of the season before traveling to St. George’s on Saturday.

Galbreath said the Lady Timberwolves have been struggling, but if his team doesn’t show up to play it could be a dogfight.

The last time the Lady Broncos faced the Lady Timberwolves, they lost by two points in Colfax.

“We had a nail biter down there,” Galbreath explained. “We’re looking forward to playing them on our court this time.”

Galbreath said he would make some tweaks to the Lady Broncos game plan based on what he saw at the last game against Colfax but at the end of the day the outcome of the game would come down to execution.

“It doesn’t really matter what you do, it’s just a matter whether or not you can execute what you’re trying to do,” he explained. “You can have all the tricks in the book but if you can’t execute anything they don’t do you any good.”

Galbreath said St. George’s is also playing better basketball at the end of the season.

“I look forward to the challenge of going up there and playing again and taking a win on them on their court,” Galbreath said.

The Lady Broncos currently hold the second place position in the Northeast 2B South district behind Colfax.

If they hold onto second place at the conclusion of the week they will face the Northeast 2B North district third ranked team in Reardan on Feb. 4.

Tip off for the senior night game on Friday against Colfax is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Gilson Gym.