Lady Broncos split final league games, end season in second place

RITZVILLE - The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague girls basketball team had already wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the district before playing its final game at home against Colfax on Tuesday on senior night. The Broncos fell behind early and ultimately lost 50-48.

The Broncos were slow out of the chute Tuesday falling behind 10-3. LRS head coach Steve Wellsandt took a timeout with 2:15 remaining and the Broncos responded. They scored on a fast break out of the timeout to make it 10-5.

The Broncos then got four stops in a row but their offense failed to take advantage. The Broncos could not get a fifth stop as Colfax sunk a three pointer shortly before the buzzer to end the quarter up 13-5.

Rebounds plagued LRS early in the second quarter. On Colfax's first possession, the Bulldogs missed four shot attempts but got four offensive rebounds. They made their fifth shot.

The Broncos wouldn't score again until they were trailing 17-7. Rebounds remained a problem for LRS and Colfax scored on several more second-chance opportunities to open a 24-10 lead.

LRS finally found some offense in the closing minutes of the half to go into the break trailing 29-18.

"I told them to clean up the defense and bit and try to run the offense," Wellsandt said about his halftime discussion with his team.

It worked. The Broncos opened the second half on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 29-25 and force Colfax into calling a timeout.

The run was broken after the timeout as Colfax drew a foul and made two free-throws. But LRS wasn't done.

LRS started crashing the boards better and created their own second chances. Janaye Wilkie missed a three, but Eliza Galbreath was there to collect the board and score on the put-back to bring the Broncos within four.

Colfax responded with its own basket, but Wilkie answered back with a layup while drawing a foul. She missed the free-throw, however, as LRS again failed to get closer than four.

Finally, with two minutes remaining, Wilkie got a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to pull within two, 33-31. With under a minute left in the quarter, Linnea Schafer sunk a mid-range jumper to tie the game at 33.

The tie lasted less than 10 seconds as Colfax responded with a three.

The Broncos finished the quarter down 36-33.

Colfax re-found its game in the fourth, opening up an eight point lead with 5:38 left, forcing Wellsandt to call timeout.

The Broncos would pull within two twice in the final minute, but Colfax hung on to win.

Free throws hurt the Broncos down the stretch as they shot just 18 out of 36 from the foul line.

"If you don't make free-throws, there goes your game right there," Wellsandt said.

Eliza Galbreath led the Broncos with 13 points and Wilkie added 10. Skylre Sakamoto finished with 13 for the Bulldogs.

"We had too much of people trying to do it on their own tonight," Wellsandt said. "We aren't that kind of team."

The Broncos entered the Colfax game on a five game win streak and had won 10 of their last 11 games.

One night earlier, the Broncos defeated Upper Columbia Academy 56-31 in a league game. Dakota Killian led the Broncos with 13 points.

On Jan. 29, the Broncos beat St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse 83-40. Janaye Wilkie scored 20 points in the non-league win. Eliza Galbreath added 17 points. The game was over after the first quarter when LRS led 29-6.

The Broncos will be the No. 2 seed of the southern division of the district in next week's tournament hosted by West Valley. They have earned a first-round bye and won't play until next Thursday.

"We're a capable team," Wellsandt said. "We can win some games at district ... We need to focus more on free-throws and focus more on defense."