LRS girls basketball split wild week

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague girls basketball team split a pair of games over the weekend, first beating Tekoa-Rosalia 73-23 on the road Friday before losing to Davenport 46-39 at home Saturday.

LRS head coach Steve Wellsandt knew last week's loss to Liberty was tough for his team. He stressed moving on with the season. After the weekend, he's not sure the team was completely over it.

"That Liberty game took a little out of us," Wellsandt said after the loss to Davenport. "I don't know if we were really mentally ready to play tonight."

Adding to the emotion of Saturday's loss to the Gorillas was the fact that Janaye Wilkie, who transfered to LRS from Davenport this year, was making her first appearance against her former team.

Davenport had a large cheering section at the game that cheered noticeably louder whenever Wilkie made a mistake.

"I know there was a lot of emotion involved tonight and I didn't know how we were going to respond to it," Wellsandt said. "You think you maybe have a handle on it, but we really didn't, I guess."

Wilkie got herself involved in the game early. She opened all scoring with a two-point jumper. LRS tried to go up 4-0, but a block under the basket by Davenport's Ellie Telford prevented that. The Lady Gorillas transitioned quickly and Lainy Jacobsen sunk a three to give Davenport its first lead of the game, 3-2.

On the next position, Wilkie pulled up for a three-point attempt from way behind the arc and missed badly, but Eliza Galbreath was there for the offensive board and put the back up for two points. The Bronco defense held and Eliza Galbreath scored again to put LRS up 6-3.

Back-to-back baskets by Darby Soliday gave Davenport a 7-6 lead. That would be the final time Davenport would lead in the first half.

LRS point guard Linnea Schafer drove the lane and made a layup in traffic and Wilkie made one of two free throws on the ensuing possession to close the first quarter with the Lady Broncos leading 9-7.

The Lady Broncos came out of the quarter break hot. Dakota Killian and Schafer scored back-to-back to give the Lady Broncos a 13-7 lead, focing Davenport head coach Stacia Soliday to call a timeout. The timeout worked, because the Davenport defense would not allow LRS to score again in almost four minutes. However, the Gorillas were only able to manage three points themselves in that span. When Eliza Galbreath broke the drought for the Lady Broncos with 3:45 remaining in the half, LRS was still up 15-10.

A three by Wilkie put LRS up 18-12, but the Gorillas responded with a three of their own. The first half ended with LRS nursing a 20-15 lead.

The second half seemed to open promising for LRS as the Lady Broncos ran a nice designed play that saw Killian score off of an Eliza Galbreath assist. After that, however, it was all Davenport.

Eliza Galbreath and Wilkie would be held scoreless in the second half. LRS would face foul trouble. Wilkie would foul out, much to the delight of the Davenport fans in attendance. Freshman Taylor Galbreath would get a lot of minutes in the second half because of foul trouble.

Right after the Killian basket to start the half, Davenport, led by Soliday, went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 22. Taylor Galbreath scored to put LRS back up, but Soliday answered back with back-to-back baskets and a free throw to extend Davenport's lead to 27-25. Davenport would never trail again.

Davenport extended its lead to nine in the fourth quarter. A small run by LRS, capped by a three-point play by Julia Klein, brought the Lady Broncos to within four points, but it was short lived. Davenport pulled away and hung on for the victory.

Schafer led LRS with 11 points while Killian added 10. Soliday led all scorers with 16. Jacobsen had 12.

"Eliza and Janaye not scoring in the second half hurt," Wellsandt said.

While the loss to Davenport was tough, it was considered a non-league game because the Gorillas are in the northern conference of the district. The Lady Broncos' league record actually improved over the weekend due to the win against Tekoa-Rosalia the night before.

Tekoa-Rosalia never gave LRS much of a challenge. All 10 players on the Lady Broncos' roster scored. Amelia Court and Grace Fedie, LRS' two players who split time between the varsity and JV squads, had their first varsity points of the season, each finishing with two.

Killian had 17 points and Eliza Galbreath had 13.

With Christmas break here, LRS will have plenty of time to rest before returning to the court. After the Davenport game on Dec. 21, Wellsandt said the team won't practice again until Thursday, Dec. 26.

When play starts again, LRS enters a tough part of its schedule that sees it play two non-league games against 1A teams. First up is Connell in a Dec. 28 road game. Connell is 7-0.

While the games don't count in the league standings, Wellsandt says LRS plans to play as if they do.

"We don't do anything different," Wellsandt said. "We try to do what we need to do to win."