Broncos prepare for last chance battle with Colfax

After finishing their regular season with two difficult losses to the Colfax Bulldogs and the St. George’s Dragons, the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos entered the District Tournament in Reardan on Feb. 4.

Their first opponent was the Northwest Christian Crusaders who the Broncos beat earlier, during the regular season. The Crusaders lacked one of their best players during that game, Ryan Ricks, who returned for the tournament.

Rick’s was not the deciding factor in the Crusaders 70-44 victory over the Broncos, however. The Broncos had a difficult start to the contest falling behind 22-11 after the first quarter.

At the half the Crusaders held a commanding lead of 38-18.

Though the Broncos were able to more evenly match the Crusader’s scoring in the second half they could not make up the deficit of the first half.

Head Coach Dustan Arlt said the team lacked energy during the game, saying at some points it seemed like the team had forgotten how to play.

“Northwest wanted it a lot more, and it showed,” Arlt explained. “Before we started playing anywhere decent we got too far behind.”

Cort Ruzicka led the scoring for the Broncos with 13 points. He also recorded seven rebounds and three steals against the Crusaders. Jacob Saetre added another 11 points to the Broncos’ score with Dallas Killian contributing an additional nine and Kyle Canaday another six.

Arlt said the Broncos did not have the mental focus for the game. The team struggled against the Crusaders’ half-court press and gave up 19 turnovers. The Broncos also made three out of 12 free throw attempts.

“That just tells me mentally they weren’t quite ready as they needed to be,” Arlt said.

The Broncos returned to Reardan on Feb. 9 to face the Reardan Indians in a loser out face-off.

The Indians took the lead early but then the Broncos’ offense got rolling.

Canaday ignited the Broncos’ offense in the first quarter, hitting back-to-back three-point shots to get Broncos’ scoring drive started.

The boys went on a 16-0 scoring spree during the second half of the first quarter.

The Broncos’ scoring faded during the second quarter but they maintained the lead, 25-21, at the end the first half.

The second half saw even scoring for both teams, but the Broncos were able to maintain the advantage in each of the final quarters and secured the win 53-43 over the Indians.

Though the Indians had two players record 16 points each, they could not contend with the number of scoring threats the Broncos fielded that evening.

“Everyone did a better job contributing on offense, more guys chipped in and did their part,” Arlt explained.

Ruzicka played well throughout the evening, Arlt said, and with 16 points for the Broncos continued to be the cornerstone for team’s scoring efforts. Ruzicka also secured eight rebounds and two blocks for the Broncos.

Saetre added another 12 points for the Broncos, with nine of them coming from the three-point line.

Arlt said both Ruzicka and Saetre were battling sickness but did a good job of fighting through and being leaders for the team.

Canaday finished the game with 10 points for the Broncos. Dylan Becker added another shooting threat for the Indians to contend with, attempting three-point shots and driving to the hoop to score eight points during the game.

Matt Leffel added another five points and brought a level of intensity the Broncos’ game that the Indians struggled to match. He also drew two player-control fouls against the Indians.

“Matt brought a lot of good energy and intensity that kind of helped the rest of the guys bring up their intensity,” Arlt said.

With the victory on Saturday, the Broncos returned to Reardan on Feb. 9 to face the St. George’s Dragons. The Broncos split two regular season games with the Dragons.

Arlt said if they want to avoid another loser-out game they would have to shut down the Dragons’ key players and convert on offensive looks.

The Dragons jumped out to an early lead over the Broncos on Tuesday night. At the end of the first half the Broncos faced a 12-point deficit with a score of 30-18 in favor of the Dragons.

In the third quarter the Broncos’ defense clamped down on the Dragons, holding them to five points during the quarter. Strong performances by Saetre and Ruzicka allowed the Broncos to close to within one point of the Dragons’ score.

St. George’s athlete Cody Peplinski sank two free throws with 10 seconds remaining in the game to extend the Dragons’ lead back to three points.

The Broncos returned the ball down the court but the last second three-point attempt was off target. The Dragons move on with a score of 48-45 over the Broncos.

Saetre led the Broncos’ scoring with 15 points. Ruzicka added 12 points for the Broncos. Rounding out the scoring for the Broncos were Killian with eight points, Leffel with four points and Wyatt Roettger with three.

The Broncos face Colfax in a battle for fifth place at the District Tournament on Feb. 12. The winner of this game will move on to Sub-Regionals.

The game is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. in Smith Gym in Reardan.