Broncos lose heartbreaker in Colfax, go 1-1 on weekend

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos had everything working in the first half of the team’s road game against the Colfax Bulldogs, and a 5-1 start to league play was well within reach. Then, the third quarter happened.

After jumping out to a 28-14 halftime lead over the Bulldogs, one of the top teams in the league in recent seasons, the Broncos were close to cementing themselves as one of the top two teams in the South Division through the first half of league play. But Colfax awoke from their offensive slumber in the third quarter, outscoring LRS 22-8 to tie the game heading into the final frame.

The heartbreak hit a boiling point for the Broncos late in the fourth quarter. With just seconds left in the game and nursing a two-point lead, LRS gave up a three-point play the old fashioned way with little time remaining to the league’s leading scorer. Colfax held on for the win, 50-49.

“Tough, disappointing, those [terms] are probably an understatement, really,” said LRS head coach Dustan Arlt. “It’s maybe the toughest regular season loss that I’ve had as a coach.”

Arlt said that he thinks it might be the biggest lead a team of his has given up in his time at LRS. The Broncos led by as many as 16 points in the second quarter.

“I knew that, in Colfax, a lead’s not safe there,” said Arlt. “I thought if we could come out and win that third quarter that we’d be in good shape … a lot of the things that we talked about [at halftime] what they were probably going to come out and do in the third quarter, they did.”

Arlt added that his team struggled with Colfax’s 2-2-1 full-court press in the third quarter, but also noted that the Bulldogs just simply played better in the second half.

Junior Drew Kelly led all scorers with 23 points in the game, with senior Austin Thompson also finishing in double figures with 11 points for the Broncos.

With the loss, the Broncos dropped to 4-2 in the Northeast 2B South Division, and will now face the six other teams in the division again to close out the regular season.

Liberty leads the conference with a 5-0 league record, prior to facing off against Colfax on Jan. 14. Colfax has a 3-1 league record.

It wasn’t all bad news for LRS over the weekend, as they soundly beat the Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars at home in a non-league game to record their ninth overall win of the season, surpassing last season’s mark.

The Broncos started out the game by outscoring Tri-Cities Prep 16-6 in the first quarter. The game was blown open in the third quarter, when LRS outscored the Jaguars 17-0 to take a 28-point lead heading into the final quarter. The Jaguars managed to cut the lead in half in the fourth quarter, but the Broncos still prevailed with a comfortable 53-39 win.

Thompson led LRS offensively in the game, finishing with 18 points. He was the only Bronco to finish in double figures, but three other LRS players finished with eight points each to help pace the team.

At the time of the game, the Broncos were No. 18 in the WIAA’s RPI rankings in 2B, while Tri-Cities Prep was ranked No. 8.

Up next for the Broncos is perhaps the toughest game of the regular season, as they travel to Spangle on Jan. 17 to face off against the Liberty Lancers. The Lancers are 12-0 on the season and are No. 1 in RPI in the 2B classification.

In the team’s first matchup this season in Ritzville on Dec. 17, the Lancers fended off a furious LRS comeback in the second half for a 73-69 win. It’s the second-closest game in terms of margin of victory that Liberty has played this season, the other being a 60-57 victory of 1A Medical Lake in what was the Lancers’ first game of the season.

Tip-off for Friday’s game in Spangle is set for 7:30 p.m.