Broncos open with big wins over NWC, Reardan

With just five practices as a team, the LRS Broncos have rolled to a trio of victories. After defeating Columbia-Burbank in the season opener at home on Friday, 64-32, the Broncos traveled to Reardan for a Saturday night session. They handed their league rival a 65-37 loss.

The biggest outing of the early season came Tuesday when the Broncos traveled to Northwest Christian to battle the defending state champions. They promptly weathered a late game comeback by the Crusaders to log a 50-45 upset.

With three wins under their belt, head coach Dustan Arlt is feeling good about the overall season for the Broncos. The team is generating points and being stingy on defense.

Against Columbia-Burbank, the Broncos held their opponent to just nine points in the second half. Reardan could only muster 17 points in the final two quarters.

“Columbia-Burbank had won a buzzer beater the night before,” Arlt said. “In the second quarter they got a little hot and we changed our defense to a 1-2-2 zone. We really outsized them.”

The Reardan outing went as Arlt expected as the Indians are down this year.

“We have good guards and if the other team doesn’t have good guards, they are going to have trouble against us,” he said of the game. “We were hot to start the game with Dylan (Hartz) and Colby (Starring) making everything. The second and third quarter didn’t go quite the way I liked. I think we relaxed.”

Against Columbia-Burbank, Hartz led the team in scoring with 15. He hit three three-pointers, grabbed six rebounds, delivered 10 assists and picked CB’s pockets for five steals. Connor O’Neill picked up 11 points, six assists and four steals. Starring scored six and had five rebounds.

Ryan Whitmore paced the defense with five blocked shots and six rebounds while scoring 10 points. Bridger Smith had three points, Cort Ruzicka had five and Kyle Canaday had four. Jarradd Morley, coming in off the bench scored six points from the post position. Tyler Frederick had four points and six rebounds.

During the Reardan game, Hartz put up 22 points, hitting a trio of threes and grabbing five rebounds while serving up four assists. Ruzicka scored 13 points, including nine of those in the fourth quarter. He also had five rebounds. Starring had 12 points, sinking four three-pointers.

Frederick scored five and logged eight rebounds. O’Neill, Smith and Canaday each scored three. Morley and Whitmore had two points each.