Lady Broncos continue winning streak by defeating Springdale, Reardan

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Lady Broncos currently hold a 6-2 league record as they head into their final three league games.

Two of the opponents they face are their two losses from earlier in the season: St. George’s and Colfax.

With these back-to-back games at the end of the season, it will prove to be a challenge for the Lady Broncos.

The team closes out the regular season against Liberty, who they defeated earlier in the season.

The last week held one nonleague match on the road versus Springdale and a league match against the Reardan Lady Indians in Gilson Gym.

Head Coach Gary Kelly stated, “Now that we see the level of competitiveness we are at, we saw we should beat both of the teams last week when playing our game, which is what we did.”

The week began on Jan. 15 against Springdale where the Lady Broncos walked off the court with a 46-30 win.

In the first half the Lady Broncos outscored the Lady Chargers 24-13 and the second half was no different.

With three of the five Lady Broncos scorers with double digit points, the team held the Lady Chargers to single digit scoring in three of the four quarters.

Tessa Jantz led in scoring with 13 points followed closely by Tommi Swannack with 12 and Peyton Curtis with 10.

Madison Harder had six points for the Lady Broncos and Felicia Ziemer rounded out the team’s scoring with five.

The team has been working to have more players making their shots offensively to help them versus defensive powerhouse teams.

With the encouragement to take more shots the Lady Broncos had 18 attempts from the three-point line, while only making six of them.

The Lady Broncos also shot 60 percent from the free throw line with 10 fouls brought against them.

The team had 19 offensive rebounds and 17 defensive rebounds. Harder was able to grab 12 of these rebounds for the team and held her ground defensively.

“You can’t judge Madi’s (Harder) game by her points, she had a great all around game, and proved it in her defensive plays,” Kelly explained.

In this game the team really worked on reducing turnovers, which they did successfully with only seven. The Lady Broncos have brought their average down to between eight and 10 turnovers per game.

After this game the Lady Broncos turned around to play the Reardan Lady Indians in Gilson Gym on Saturday, Jan. 16.

The team wanted to keep their momentum going but in the back of their minds was a small concern. Reardan was able to beat St. George’s in their match up the week prior.

“Reardan beat St. George’s who we lost to by almost 20 points. The girls were definitely on guard but confident in their game at the same time,” Kelly said.

After holding Reardan to only three points in the first quarter, the Lady Broncos quickly gained confident with their control of the game.

Kelly said they were able to give a lot of the team minutes in this game, which helped to give some of the starters a break while giving the bench a chance to show their strengths.

“It really felt good to play so well and to dominate a team in front of our home crowd,” Kelly stated.

Kelly said this season has been a great time for girl’s basketball, and is appreciative of the community support the team has received.

By half the Lady Broncos were ahead 26-17 and their lead increased from there as they kept the Lady Indians to just eight points in the second half.

In this game Ziemer stepped up her offensive game and added nine points to the Lady Broncos score, Kelly stated.

Kelly has been working with Ziemer to encourage her to take more shots and she used the Reardan game to gain confidence.

Kelly has been encouraging the girls to increase their shooting so the team is not relying on three players for their score.

Curtis and Swannack both brought in 14 points.

Jantz added eight followed by a 3-pointer from Lacey Miller. Harder and Tessa O’Brien rounded out the team’s score with two points each.

These attributed to the team’s win of 52-25 over Reardan that night.

The Lady Broncos made 20 attempts at the three-point line in this game with only six of them sinking. Swannack took five of these and made three.

The team only shot eight for 14 from the line, which is a 57 percent total for the team.

Overall, this game allowed a lot of the team to take shot attempts they may have been cautious about in previous competitions.

In this game the team pulled down 17 offensive rebounds. These were met with 17 defensive rebounds as well.

The team also kept their turnovers to just nine.

Ed Shields, coach of the Reardan Lady Indians, approached the Lady Broncos after the game to compliment them on their improvement, Kelly said.

Kelly said Shields advised the team he has enjoyed seeing the Lady Broncos play good basketball. Kelly stated this was a great moment for the team, since Reardan has always been a rival for them.

Kelly also stated while the games went as they thought they should, the team still has areas he would like to have tuned up before their next week of league games.

He advised the team will treat the St. George’s and Colfax games as loser-out playoff matches as practice for the fast approaching post season play.

“I want us to go into playoffs knowing what the games will feel like instead of learning how to play in a playoff game while in the playoffs,” Kelly explained.

Knowing that playoff games come with a lot of pressure and intensity, Kelly said he wants to give the team as much preparation as possible.

Last year the team struggled with consistency in play but it has not proved to be an issue during this season. They have been rock solid and have proved what competitors they can be.

The Lady Broncos went on the road to face Connell on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

A match up against Wilbur-Creston follows this game on Friday, Jan. 22.

Saturday, Jan. 23, the Lady Broncos will face the St. George’s Lady Dragons with tipoff at 7:30 p.m.

There will be performances hosted by the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague cheerleader’s Junior Cheer Camp during halftime of both the boys and girls basketball games.