Broncos to play in Spokane Arena

SPOKANE - The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague boys basketball team opens state Hardwood Classic play today, Wednesday, March 1, in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

The No. 9-ranked Broncos will take on the No. 8-seeded Adna Pirates at 2 p.m.

"It's not an easy shooting environment. You're kind of in awe at first, and then you have to get over there and try to make shots," Broncos Coach Dustan Arlt said of heading to the Arena. "Fortunately, we're going to play Adna and they're very guard-oriented, as well and shoot a lot.

"It might be whoever can adjust to that, first of all, the nerves at the arena and shooting in that kind of atmosphere. But hey, that's a good problem to have, because that means we're playing at the arena."

The winner of the loser-out game will advance to take on No. 2-ranked Morton-White Pass at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 2.

Two other Northeast 2B boys teams have earned a spot in the Arena.

No. 7-ranked Northwest Christian (Colbert) opens at 10:30 a.m. today, Wednesday, March 1, against No. 10 Chief Leschi.

The winner of that game will advance to face NE2B and No. 1 seed, the Davenport Gorillas at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 2.

The Broncos reached the after cruising to an easy win over Dayton-Waitsburg on Saturday, Feb. 25, in the state opening round at Cheney High School.

The Broncos (19-7) topped the Wolfpack, 53-35, eliminating Dayton-Waitsburg from the postseason.

Sophomore Jayce Kelley led all scorers with 23 points; 13 came in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

"Jayce Kelly hit some big free throws," Broncos Coach Dustan Arlt said. "We made it just enough, but you give up 35 points in the state tournament, your odds of winning are pretty dang good."

The Broncos opened with a 11-3 run to set the pace for the first quarter.

The Wolfpack rallied in the second, but came up short heading into the locker room for halftime.

The Broncos held the Wolfpack to only 6 points in the third quarter and 14 overall in the second half.

"I thought it'd be a grind-it-out game, and I thought they'd help (on defense) a ton," Arlt said after the game. "You can see, they swarmed Chase (Galbreath) down low. We missed a lot of shots.

"Fortunately, so did they that first half. They got a good little run there that second quarter."

Arlt said he was proud of his team's second-half defense.

"I thought they'd have trouble against our man (defense) scoring a ton. I was right," he said, relieved that his Broncos rallied late in the game.

"It took until that late third quarter, fourth quarter to finally pull away. Fortunately, we got some fouls on them and got to the free throw line," he said.