Broncos improve to 7-1

The way coach Dustan Arlt sees it, the Broncos were one sprained ankle away from finally defeating Colfax last week. They opened the league battle with a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. As time ran out in the first period, Dylan Hartz made a great three-point shot, but came down wrong and rolled his ankle.

He would be unable to play for the rest of the game. The Broncos, while scrambling to adjust in the second quarter, were outscored by the Bulldogs 17-4, surrendering their early lead.

“We really weren’t ready to play without Dylan as a team,” Arlt said. “It shell shocked the kids a little bit in the second quarter. All of a sudden we were down by 13 points. We cut it to four with a couple of minutes to go. Colby (Starring) worked his tail off and made some big shots in the second half, including back-to-back threes in the third quarter. Ryan (Whitmore) played really hard down low.”

In the end, Colfax took enough of a lead in the second and third quarters to capture a 50-45 win. Hartz led the Broncos in scoring with 12 points. Starring delivered 10 points and Whitmore added nine.

Friday and Saturday the Broncos rolled out a pair of non-league victories. At Odessa on Friday, the Broncos defeated Odessa-Harrington, 65-56.

“We knew Odessa-Harrington was going to be tough. They have all kinds of seniors. They are scrappy and have a ton of guards,” Arlt said.

At the end of the first half, the Broncos found themselves trailing, 34-28.

The third quarter was a time for redemption as they outscored OH 14-6, and then went on to produce a 23-16 effort in the fourth.

Tyler Frederick, Connor O’Neill and Hartz each scored 10 points. Whitmore led the scoring with 11 points. Jarradd Morley came in off the bench to score nine.

“He made some pretty big baskets for us,” Arlt said of Morley. “We had pretty balanced scoring.”

O’Neill had five assists, Whitmore hauled in 11 rebounds, and Hartz had seven assists and seven rebounds.

At home against Warden on Saturday, the Broncos raced out to a 22-8 lead after the first quarter and rolled to a 66-43 win.

It was a night for blocked shots. Whitmore recorded seven blocks and Cort Ruzicka kicked in three of his own.

On the scoring side, Frederick had a career night, leading the Broncos with 20 points, six rebounds and four steals. Whitmore scored 16 and had eight rebounds. Starring and O’Neill each scored nine. Starring sank a trio of threes during the game. O’Neill had 11 assists, seven rebounds and three steals.

“We went inside a lot, that’s for sure,” Arlt said of the post play.

Frederick hit nine of 12 and Whitmore finished six of six inside.

Hartz finished with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals. Ruzicka hauled down nine rebounds.

The Broncos are 7-1 overall and will host St. John-Endicott Friday night in a non-league outing.