Brewster comes back to beat LRS

SPOKANE—The No. 9 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos built a nine-point lead against No. 5 Brewster in the 2B state semifinals Friday and looked like their magical run through the state playoffs might take them to the state championship game.

But it was not to be, as Brewster erased that deficit in the second half and held on to defeat LRS 55-50 and advance to the state title game.

LRS, meanwhile, was sent to the 3rd/5th place game against Columbia (Burbank) tomorrow.

The Broncos took a 16-11 lead into the second quarter behind six points from Jayce Kelly and five points and six rebounds for Chase Galbreath.

Kelly then caught fire in the second quarter, hitting four threes to reach 18 points by halftime as Brewster senior Kelson Gebbers, a University of Portland commit, struggled to find his offensive rhythm.

The Broncos led 32-23 at halftime.

But Brewster, an experienced bunch with a lot of Arena minutes logged in the last three years, quickly scored five points early in the third quarter.

LRS’s lead was trimmed to three at the first media timeout of the third quarter before the Bears took their first lead since it was 4-2 at 40-39 in the final minute of the period.

Lance Williamson hit a big three for the Broncos to give LRS a 42-40 lead into the fourth quarter, but Gebbers hit a larger trey with 2:22 left to give Brewster a 51-46 lead.

Kelly hit his sixth three to make it 51-50, but LRS couldn’t find the basket again as Brewster held on.

“We had that lead in the first half. Jayce got on fire a little bit,” LRS head coach Dustan Arlt said. “Unfortunately, Brewster came back pretty quick in that third quarter. It was back-and-forth. I was pleased we got that lead back going into the fourth. We’ve played a lot of games here and pulled them out, but tonight we looked a little tired. Some of those shots that had been going for us fell off the rim.”

Gebbers finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Tyson Schertenleib added 16 points for the victors.

Kelly was the player of the game for LRS, scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Galbreath also had a double-double with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

The Bears will take on Davenport in the title game at 9 p.m. Saturday, March 4 while the Broncos face the Coyotes at 11:15 a.m.