Reardan girls come back to top LRS

SPOKANE VALLEY-In typical Reardan fashion, the girls' loser-out game against No. 6 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague wasn't always pretty.

But the senior leadership of Ayden Krupke and Madi Dewey was enough to push the girls past the Broncos 48-46 Thursday, Feb. 17 to survive and advance to the final day of the District 7 2B Tournament.

LRS started off with the advantage, building a first-half lead that ballooned to as many as 11 points as Reardan was sloppy and inconsistent offensively.

Reardan trailed 15-7 after a quarter and 34-28 at halftime. That lead was trimmed to two points behind key baskets from Dewey entering the fourth quarter.

"Teams are going to give you their best shot, because they don't want to go home either," Reardan head coach Bob Swannack said. "But tonight was just about my seniors having a little more grit down the stretch."

The teams battled back and forth before Krupke took over, hitting three three-pointers to put Reardan on top. Reardan managed a steal but couldn't put the game away and LRS had one final shot with 1.6 seconds remaining.

The play came to an open three-pointer for LRS senior Grace Fedie, but her shot bounced off the front iron and Reardan survived.

Krupke was dominant in the second half and finished with a game-high 22 points. Dewey added an enormous 17 points.

"Thank God I had some timeouts to call down the stretch so we could call some sets," Swannack said. "We played harder and got pretty much every 50/50 ball...it was really a tale of two halves."

Dakota Killian led LRS with 14 points.

Reardan advanced to a rematch against St. George's for third place and a state tournament bid. That game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19.

"It's playoff basketball, and we're senior dominant," Swannack said. "My girls will show up to play."