Lady Broncos begin league competition with two tough games

With their first week of games in the past the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Lady Broncos are working towards their next league game on Saturday, Dec. 19.

The week started off on Tuesday, Dec. 8, against the Medical Lake Lady Cardinals with a big win. The Lady Broncos walked off the court while the scoreboard read 48-27 against the 1A school.

Peyton Curtis held the title of high scorer with 15 points. She was closely followed by Tommi Swannack with 13 points and Tessa Jantz with 10.

At halftime the score was 26-12 with the Lady Broncos leading. The second half began with a rough start in the third quarter allowing the Lady Cardinals to score 11 to LRS team’s seven points.

They came back strong in the fourth accumulating 15 points and winning the game.

On Friday, Dec. 11 the team traveled to Spokane to face the St. George’s Lady Dragons in their first league game of the season.

This game proved to be a challenge for the team as they fell 36-52. The Lady Broncos began the game slowly, only scoring two points in the first quarter compared to the Lady Dragon’s 13.

The Lady Broncos had a chance to get ahead in their game due to the 20 fouls St. George’s racked up compared to their 11.

From the line the team went nine for 20. Due to Jantz’s aggressiveness on the court she had nine attempts from the foul line and made four of these.

The second and third quarters showed the strength the Lady Broncos have as a team with scores of 13 and 15 respectively. The fourth quarter was where the team showed fatigue and put up only six points.

With their first league loss the Lady Broncos turned around and fought the Colfax Lady Bulldogs on their home court Saturday, Dec. 12.

This proved to be a battle of a game with a final score of 51-49, with the Lady Broncos falling to Colfax.

There was only one point where Colfax may have thought they would have a runaway on their hands.

At halftime the Lady Bulldogs lead 31-22.

The Lady Broncos came out strong in the second half and quickly closed the nine-point deficit by scoring 11 points to Colfax’s nine in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter held 16 points for the Lady Broncos which ultimately was not enough. In the final quarter Jantz battled under the hoop, hitting a shot to tie the game at 49 with five seconds left.

A last second Lady Broncos foul sent Colfax’s leading scorer Carmen Gfeller to the line. Gfeller, who ended the night with 27 points, sank both free throws and earned Colfax the two-point win.

For the Lady Broncos, Curtis put up 15 points and Swannack added 12 to the final score.

Felicia Ziemer added five points to the Lady Broncos score. Kallie Harder battled in the paint to add four additional points, and Tessa O’Brien had three.

This week held highs and lows for the Lady Broncos but ultimately they showed they could come back against odds and work as a team to fight the higher ranked teams in the league.

The Lady Broncos host Tekoa-Rosalia in Gilson Gym on Saturday, Dec. 19, with tipoff at 6 p.m.