Lady Broncos continue their post-season success

The Lady Broncos basketball team fought through a few tough games to continue their post-season play in the Sub-Regional Tournament.

The LRS team faced the Liberty Lady Lancers in their first match of the week on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

According to Head Coach Gary Kelly this proved to be the team’s worst game of the season. Tessa Jantz, Peyton Curtis and Tommi Swannack all suffered from injuries or sickness.

The Lady Lancers put on a full court press the Lady Broncos did not have answers for. Due to the reduced number of athletes on the team, athletes with less experience were rotated in and they were unprepared for the varsity competition.

The team additionally gave up 20 turnovers on this night compared to Liberty’s eight.

From the beginning, the game proved difficult offensively for the Lady Broncos. They only scored three points, which led to a 16-23 deficit heading into halftime.

While the second half proved to be a closer game, the Lady Broncos were still unable to make up the point difference from the first half. The game ended with a 35-48 score.

Jantz, Swannack, Lacey Miller and Holly Nygren were each able to put up eight points for the team. Tessa O’Brien had two followed by Madison Harder who sunk a free throw.

Kelly stated the highlight of the game for him was Nygren and Miller stepping up their offensive game while on the court. They each hit two big three-point shots, which gave some life to the team.

With this loss the team moved on to play Northwest Christian again on Feb. 12 for fifth place.

The Lady Broncos already matched up with the Lady Crusaders in this tournament just six days prior and they were ready to cinch a spot in the Sub-Regional Tournament.

Kelly stated the team remained optimistic and hoped to have Swannack near 100 percent, as Jantz also felt significantly better.

Curtis returned to the court for the team and Kelly stated her efforts, even at just 50 percent, helped the team win.

Swannack had a huge game and put up 17 points for the Lady Broncos coupled with eight rebounds. Jantz was close behind and scored 14 points along with 12 rebounds and blocked shots.

Curtis put up eight points followed by Miller with six points from two 3-pointers and Nygren with three. Alisha Baker scored two points for the team in the fourth quarter.

The game proved to be a true playoff game by remaining competitive throughout. At halftime, the Lady Broncos had a one-point advantage, 24-23.

Kelly said with Swannack, Curtis and Jantz on the court their defensive strength increased and allowed the choice of the other two players to be flexible. They were able to substitute players in based on offensive or defensive strengths.

The Lady Broncos earned a 50-43 win to knock the Lady Crusaders out of the competition and secure fifth place for themselves.

In order to continue on, the Lady Broncos would once again have to face the Liberty Lady Lancers.

The Lady Broncos met Liberty again on Feb. 15 in Waitsburg.

Kelly stated the team was excited to have a chance to play Liberty again with their whole team feeling strong both mentally and physically.

He added one of their motivators was the excitement they saw from Liberty after beating the Lady Broncos just a week prior.

Liberty did not fall easily and battled throughout the game, but the Lady Broncos were prepared. They stuck to their game plan, were persistenr and pulled out a 40-35 win.

Several Lady Broncos had big games, Curtis put up 18 points, Swannack had 11 and Jantz had nine. Harder rounded out the scoring with two.

Jantz also took two charges on the defensive end, which was huge for the team. Throughout the game the Lady Broncos went 19 for 27 from the line.

Both teams were playing for the win, Kelly said, and this physical play resulted in 21 fouls for each team.

Kelly stated depth of the Lady Broncos’ bench proved to be the key difference in the game. The LRS team had the ability to rotate in compettive athletes for the starters, while Liberty did not.

Because of this, Liberty’s top three players fouled out in the fourth quarter. Harder additionally fouled out in the final quarter of the game.

Kelly said the players he put in the game did a great job of picking up where the other players left off defensively, though offensively only four players put up points for the team.

Harder and Rachel Schell were charged with containing Christine Denny, who Kelly states is the best offensive player in the league.

The Lady Broncos held Denny to eight points. Kelly stated Harder and Schell’s outstanding defense helped the Lady Broncos to secure the league win.

With this win the Lady Broncos move on to face Dayton on Friday, Feb. 19, at Mead High School with tipoff at 6:15 p.m.

The Lady Broncos faced the Lady Bulldogs once in regular season play and were able to beat them 39-36. Kelly is expecting the same battle to take place on Friday with Regionals on the line.

He believes with his whole team feeling better for the first time in three weeks they are peaking at the right time.

Kelly stated it will be a good game and he feels some pressure is off the team now they have a few playoff wins under their belt and are playing better than their early matches in the District Tournament.

The team has worked hard all season and they have ended up right where they wanted to be. They feel on top of the world and will hopefully put together a good game, Kelly said.

If they win in their game versus Dayton they will play for third or fourth place on Saturday. If they lose the team drops into a loser-out game for fifth place.

The Regional Tournament would be a huge accomplishment for the team Kelly stated, it would mean they are in the top 16 teams in the state.

Three of the Lady Broncos were also honored this week as All-League athletes.

Curtis and Jantz were on the first team All-League and Swannack on the All-League second team.