Broncos one win away from state

Saturday’s regional basketball tournament is a single game event for the teams who have advanced this far. The winners earn a trip to the state tournament. The losers pack up and go home until next season.

The LRS Broncos intend to make the most of it. A win catapults LRS to the Spokane Arena next week for the three-day WIAA 2B Hardwood Classic.

A trip to state must go through Lake Roosevelt. The Broncos meet Lake Roosevelt at 4 p.m. at Cheney High School on Saturday.

“I like our chances,” head coach Dustan Arlt said. “We might have the best matchup we could have got at the regional tournament.”

Lake Roosevelt is in the regional event after defeating Riverside Christian, 62-53, in a loser-out sub regional tournament game last Wednesday in Wenatchee. The win was secured with a 25-point effort in the fourth quarter.

“They are more guard oriented and like to shoot from the outside,” Arlt said. “They can be a little streaky. We can’t let them get momentum, get hot or get on a roll.”

The winner will enter the state tournament as a No. 2 seed. Depending on the state bracket, that means the first round opponent will likely be the winner of Bear Creek versus Willapa Valley or Morton-White pass versus LaConnor.

“There’s a good chance the top eight teams in the state will make the Arena, barring any upsets,” Arlt said. “The field could be pretty strong.”

Two sub regional tournament wins last weekend gave the Broncos their regional berth. They defeated Tri-Cities Prep easily on Friday, 64-33. Saturday they pulled off a victory in a wild one against Liberty, 79-71.

The Broncos appeared to be in complete control, leading 29-22 at the half and then using a big third quarter run for a 53-36 advantage.

Anything can happen when these two teams meet. It certainly did in the fourth quarter. Liberty scored 35 points in the fourth as the Broncos had 26.

The final period was a free throw shooting clinic. The two teams combined shot 41 free throws. For the game the teams had 61 trips to the line. The Broncos were 25 of 34 for the game and Liberty was 23 of 29.

“The third quarter was probably one of our best all year,” Arlt said. “We were up by 21 at one point and had a good lead going into the fourth.”

Then the fourth quarter changed everything.

“What hurt us, they kept gunning it and were crashing the boards,” Arlt said. “They were all over us. And their crowd was getting wild.”

To compound things, point guard Dylan Hartz fouled out, Connor O’Neill rolled his ankle and Ryan Whitmore was playing with four fouls.

“The good thing is that Jacob (Saetre) and Kyle (Canaday) stepped up under pressure,” Arlt said.

O’Neill and Hartz put on a clinic for the majority of the game. Hartz led with 24 and O’Neill was right there with 23 points of his own. Hartz also hadfive rebounds, 9 assists and five steals.

“The third quarter we looked pretty darn good and we needed every point we got the way the fourth quarter went,” Arlt said.

Tyler Frederick finished with 11 points. Saetre scored eight in the game. Cort Ruzicka provided six points and Wyatt Roettger had four. Canaday added two and Bridger Smith one.

Frederick picked up seven rebounds and Ruzicka added five. Whitmore recorded three blocked shots.

The Friday contest with TCP featured three big quarters by the Broncos. Leading 17-9 after the first period, LRS took a 34-20 lead at the half. Their 22-6 effort in the third quarter sealed the deal.

Frederick was hot as a shooter, scoring 18 and going nine for nine from the field. He also had six rebounds.

O’Neill led the scoring with 19 points. Whitmore scored eight. Hartz finished with five, Ruzicka four and Canaday and Saetre each had three. Roettger scored two. O’Neill picked up seven assists, four steals and hit two three-point buckets. Hartz grabbed nine rebounds and six assists. Whitmore hauled in 11 rebounds