Broncos basketball gets first league win

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos returned from a long break this past weekend with a pair of home games, picking up their first league win of the season against the Reardan Indians and falling to the Connell Eagles in a non-league game.

LRS stormed past Reardan on Jan. 4, their first game since traveling to Davenport on Dec. 21, defeating the Indians 57-35. The win improved the Broncos' record in league play to 1-2.

Senior Bryce Kelly led the way in the scoring department for the Broncos with 16 points, while junior Spencer Gering also finished in double figures with 14 points. Four other LRS players scored at least four points in the game. Kelly also led the Broncos on the glass, grabbing eight rebounds.

"The season probably hadn't gone as well as I'd like [up to this game]," said head coach Dustan Arlt. "But if you had told me that we were going to beat Reardan by 22 points before the season started, I'd have been pretty darn happy. We finally played how I thought we could more. It was a good, quality league win to start the new year, and I was really pleased how we bounced back from a tough December and a really tough loss before Winter Break."

The Broncos' full-court press defense gave Reardan plenty of trouble, and played a large part in forcing 26 Indian turnovers compared to LRS' 16 turnovers. Junior Cole Cameron recorded five steals in the game, while six other LRS players had at least one steal.

"We just played a lot better, especially offensively but defensively as well. To hold a team with that kind of size and athletes to 35 points is pretty good. [The full-court press] wasn't intended necessarily to get a ton of steals, but I wanted us to slow them up a little and not let them get into their offense as quickly. But they do struggle taking care of the ball, and that's all it took with the press we had, and our zone."

The Broncos hosted the Connell Eagles the next day in one of their final non-league games of the season. The teams went into the half with the game tied at 25, but Connell's offense exploded in the third quarter, outscoring LRS 22-7 and eventually winning 54-37. The Broncos scored just 12 points in the second half.

Bryce Kelly again led LRS in scoring with 17 points in the game, while sophomore Drew Kelly finished with 10 points. Gering and senior Shontz Yaeger were the only other Broncos players to score in the game, finishing with 10 and 6 points, respectively. Drew led the team in rebounding with seven, while Bryce notched five steals and four blocks in the game.

Arlt gave credit to the Eagles, noting that all but one of the team's players were seniors and that everyone on their team had the ability to shoot the ball well.

LRS shot just 15-53 from the field in the game, including just 3-22 from beyond the arc. The Broncos' four scorers in the game combined to shoot 15-40, while the rest of the team was 0-13.

"That was probably the best shooting team we'll play all year," said Arlt. "We were kind of hoping to avoid a hot-streak from them, and we did for three of the four quarters. But that third quarter, unfortunately they got hot. And we, playing back-to-back games for the first time in two weeks, I think it kind of showed in the second half. We just ran out of steam and only scored 12 points in the second half."

Sitting with an overall record of 4-6 and a league record of 1-2, the Broncos will play three more games this week, two of them league games. LRS traveled to Pasco on Jan. 8 to take on the Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars in a non-league game.

The Broncos will then host the Tekoa-Rosalia Timberwolves on Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. Tekoa-Rosalia enters the game with a 2-1 record in league play and a 9-2 record overall, and have scored less than 50 points in a game just once in their first 11 games.

LRS then travels to Asotin on Jan. 12 to take on the Panthers at 6 p.m. Asotin is 0-3 in league play on the season and 5-5 overall, and lost to Reardan by 11 points in their matchup on Dec. 11. They narrowly lost to Tekoa-Rosalia by three points in their most recent game on Jan. 4.