Broncos sweep pair of non-league road games, improve to 6-3

Staff report, The Ritzville Journal | Last updated Jan 02, 2020 9:43am0

Jeremy Burnham/The Ritzville Journal count

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos demolished the Connell Eagles 66-26 in a road game on Dec. 28. The 40-point win was the largest margin of victory for LRS since Dec. 30, 2017.

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague boys basketball team easily walked over 1A Connell 66-26 in a non-league contest on Saturday, Dec. 28.

The game actually started out close. With under two minutes left in the first quarter, LRS was only leading by two, 10-8. However, a steal and layup by Drew Kelly and a three pointer by Josh McClure helped the Broncos close out the quarter up 15-8. The Broncos never looked back.

LRS put the game away in the second quarter outscoring Connell 16-3. Connell's loan three came near the end of the quarter. Austin Thompson closed out the quarter with a buzzer beating three-pointer for the Broncos.

The second half started how the first half ended, with an Austin Thompson bucket. After Cole Cameron sunk two free throws on the Broncos' next possession, LRS' lead was 35-11. After a Connell turnover, Cameron scored two more on a fast-break layup. He wasn't done. Another turnover led to another Cameron layup and the Broncos led 39-11.

A three-pointer by Spencer Gering made it 42-11. The game was long over by the time the third quarter ended.

The fourth quarter saw LRS go to its bench while cruising to a win.

Thompson finished with 15 points while Kelly added 14 and McClure had 10.

The Broncos were back in action on Monday, Dec. 30, traveling to Coulee City to take on 1B Almira/Coulee-Hartline in another non-league road tilt. It was another strong defensive performance for LRS, as they held ACH to just 25 points in the team's 39-25 win.

LRS held a modest 16-12 lead at the half, but outscored ACH 13-4 in the third quarter to go up by 13 and all but put the game out of reach. Kelly led the Broncos with 14 points in the win, while McClure was the only other LRS player to score more than 5 points in the game, scoring 8.

With the two non-league wins, the Broncos improve to 6-3 (2-1 in league play) overall on the season. The team will get back to its league schedule this Friday, Jan. 3, when they host the Asotin Panthers (3-7 overall, 1-1 in league play) at the Gilson Gym. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.