Bronco girls open district tournament with win

SPOKANE VALLEY – A thin, eight-man roster wasn’t too much of a hindrance for No. 6 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague in the first round of the District 7 2B girls basketball tournament Monday, as the Broncos shut down the No. 11 Jenkins (Chewelah) Cougars early and often en route to a convincing 53-22 victory.

The win sent Lind-Ritzville/Sprague into the second round of the tournament and set up a matchup with No. 3 Kettle Falls.

The Broncos jumped on the Cougars’ throats right away, with five players scoring in the first quarter as LRS took a 12-4 lead.

The team then scored nine straight points to begin the second quarter to extend the lead to 21-4, but then the Broncos hit a mysterious scoring slump that lasted through the end of the quarter into the third period as Chewelah went on an 8-0 run to trim its halftime deficit to 21-12.

The Broncos finally got their offense rolling midway through the third quarter and throughout the rest of the game on the way to an easy win over the league’s last-place team.

“That’s kind of the way we are sometimes. We go through some dry spells,” Broncos Coach Steve Wellsandt said. “We hope to God our defense holds up, but we were doing some different things tonight. Some looked okay, some didn’t.”

The Broncos were paced in scoring by senior Grace Fedie, who scored 20 points and hit four three-pointers.

“She’s a little bit streaky of a 3-point shooter, but when she gets on a roll, she can sure make them,” Wellsandt said.

The Broncos came into the game with just eight healthy players due to various injuries across the roster. The available bodies were trimmed once more in the third quarter when reserve junior Taylor Galbreath suffered an apparent leg injury.

“Defensively, we’ve got to be really good, and we’ve got to rebound better,” Wellsandt said. “They’re tough, and it’ll be a tough game for us.”