Lady Broncos win league opener in dominating fashion

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague girls basketball coach Steve Wellsandt said before the season that he wanted to see his team face off against Liberty, the team he said was the team to beat in the conference. He got his wish Tuesday night but not the result he was looking for. The Lady Broncos fell to the Lancers 51-38 at home.

Before that, the Lady Broncos defeated Upper Columbia Academy in the league opener at home on Dec. 19. The Lady Broncos are now 1-1 in conference play and 3-2 overall.

Dec. 19's game against UCA continued the Lady Broncos' trend of strong defense. The offense was a little slower to get going, but once it did, LRS never looked back.

The game started as a defensive battle as both teams pressed and neither scored in the first two minutes. Wellsandt took a timeout.

"I don't like calling timeouts early in games," Wellsandt said after the game. "But we went four possessions with turnovers."

The offense kept struggling. It wouldn't be until Dakota Killian scored with 4:30 left that LRS got on the board. The Broncos then got a stop and Eliza Galbreath gave the Broncos their first lead with a layup.

LRS' defense remained strong and held UCA to just six points in the quarter–all off of three-pointers– and the Broncos held on to the 8-6 lead after one.

LRS would blow the game open to start the second quarter with a 14-0 run. Taylor Galbreath and Linnea Schafer opened the second quarter with a two-woman 6-0 run to open a 14-6 lead. Julia Klein and Killian then added six more to make the run 12-0. UCA called a timeout down 20-6.

UCA's Ayden Lee stopped the run by scoring five unanswered for the Lions. That's all the scoring the Broncos would allow in the quarter. LRS' defense continued its dominance and the Broncos closed the half with a 32-13 lead.

Klein continued her hot game and opened the second half with layup in traffic. Eliza Galbreath then scored back-to-back baskets to give the Broncos a 38-13 lead. She appeared to score a third-straight basket and draw a foul, but the referees instead called her for a charge.

UCA would score on the resulting possession to stop the run, but Eliza Galbreath answered right back with another basket in the paint.

LRS's runaway victory continued in the fourth and with 4:30 remaining, Wellsandt emptied his bench and rested his starters the rest of the way.

Eliza Galbreath finished with 13 points while Klein and Killian added 11 points apiece.

The Lady Broncos' trend of slow starts continued against Liberty on Tuesday. Led by Maisie Burnham and Aleena Cook, the Lancers walked all over LRS to start the game and led 23-5 after one quarter. That was still the score a few minutes into the second quarter when Wellsandt called a timeout.

"Some teams would have given up at that point," Wellsandt after the game.

LRS didn't. Out of the timeout, the Lady Broncos started on their own 12-5 run making the score 28-17. Liberty ended the half up 30-18. The Broncos defense tightened up on Burnham and Cook down the stretch.

The second and third quarters were best for LRS as the Broncos outscored Liberty 13-7 and 13-9 respectively. They managed to cut Liberty's lead to eight in the fourth quarter, but that's the closest they would get.

Janaye Wilkie led LRS with 13 points. Cook had 19 and Burnham had 18 for Liberty.

Next, The Broncos play Tekoa-Rosalia on the road on Friday before returning home to host Davenport on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.