Lady Broncos knock off defending state champs, on five-game winning streak

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague girls basketball team added two more wins against quality opponents last week as the Broncos took down defending state champion Tri-Cities Prep 48-44 at home Friday and Colfax 54-31 on the road Saturday.

The Lady Broncos have now won five in row and have not lost in 2020.

Head coach Steve Wellsandt said early this year that the three-game stretch consisting of games at Reardan, home against Tri-Cities Prep and at Colfax would be a challenge for his squad. The Lady Broncos won all three games and outscored their opponents 161 to 121.

During the five-game win streak, LRS has outscored its opponents 278 to 180.

LRS’s defense started strong against TCP and the offense took what the Jaguars gave it. TCP didn’t score until 4:03 into the first quarter. Janaye Wilkie sunk a three-pointer to pace LRS to a 8-0 lead before TCP made a free throw.

After the free throw, the Broncos responded by moving the ball down the court quickly and Dakota Killian finished with a layup. TCP turned the ball over and the Broncos scored again. TCP took a timeout down 12-1.

TCP didn’t have its first FG until Hollis Long sunk a three with 1:09 left in the quarter. TCP then got a stop and scored on a fast-break to close the gap to 14-8 to end the quarter.

Linnea Schafer opened the second quarter by finding Eliza Galbreath under the basket for an easy bucket.

After that, the Jaguars picked up the momentum they established near the end of the first quarter and closed the gap to 18-17 before LRS head coach Steve Wellsandt called a timeout.

LRS came out of the timeout to score five straight points to go up 23-17. Long answered back with a three of her own and TCP again pulled within one, 23-22.

TCP took its first lead of the game at the end of the first half when Mckenna Martinez sunk a buzzer-beating three to give TCP a 25-23 halftime lead.

“We went into halftime a bit down,” Wellsandt said of his team’s mindset.

Eliza Galbreath opened the second-half scoring with a second-chance basket to tie the game at 25. Then, LRS got a stop and Eliza Galbreath drove the lane to draw the double team and dished the ball off to Dakota Killian for the basket.

TCP surged back ahead but Julia Klein scored a layup in traffic to put LRS back on top, 31-30.

The game continued to go back-and-forth from there. With the Lady Broncos up 45-44, the game got rough in the final two minutes. Wilkie, on the defensive side of the court, took a hard elbow to the face, resulting in a foul being called. She missed the free throw, but LRS got the rebound and fed Wilkie the ball under the basket where she made the shot to give LRS the 47-44 lead.

TCP then missed a shot and Killian got fouled on the rebound. She also missed her free throw, but LRS again got the rebound and hung on for the win.

Killian led the LRS with 16 points, while Wilkie added 12 and Galbreath had 11.

Martinez led all scores with 20 for TCP.

Wellsandt was happy with the toughness he saw out of his team.

“I think that’s one of the comments a player said tonight,” Wellsandt said. “She said, ‘We didn’t play our best, be we fought through it.’ You have to be mentaly tough to do that … TCP is a good ball club. They are near the top of their league and they are going to be a postseason club. That competition is really good for us.”

The Lady Broncos’ win against Colfax was a one-sided affair in which LRS outscored Colfax every quarter. Killian again led the way with 14 points.