Bronco boys blitzed

SPOKANE VALLEY-The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague boys basketball team hung around in the first half, but ultimately couldn't match the firepower and depth of Northwest Christian (Colbert) this past weekend.

The Crusaders topped the Broncos, 67-46, in the District 7 Northeast 2B quarterfinals at West Valley High School on Saturday, Feb. 3.

Northwest Christian showed its offensive firepower from the tip, pouring in 18 first quarter points.

The Broncos hung around, scoring 11 points aided by four apiece from Brock Kinch and Lance Williamson.

The second quarter was Lind-Ritzville's best of the game.

The Broncos outscored the Crusaders 15-14 as Damon Schilling came off the bench and scored 10 points to give the Crusaders a 32-26 halftime lead.

But in the third quarter, Northwest Christian turned on the gas. The Crusaders hit their free throws in a physical, tightly whistled game, while the Broncos struggled at the line.

As a result, the Crusaders pulled away to lead 58-41 by the end of the third quarter. The Broncos couldn't recover.

Head Coach Dustan Arlt praised his team's aggressiveness in getting to the free throw line, but lamented its 12 misses in 27 tries.

"I thought we did a good job (shooting) 27 free throws," Arlt said. "The problem is, we only made 15. But that was a great job getting to the line, being aggressive.

"We just have to execute at the free throw line better."

Kinch and Schilling scored 12 points to lead the Broncos. Shawn Steinberger had 8 points and Williamson had 6 points for Lind-Ritzville.

Avi West scored a game-high 23 points for the Crusaders.

The loss sent the Broncos to the loser-out round, where they will take on Davenport at 5 p.m. today, Wednesday, Feb. 7 at West Valley High School.

The Gorillas beat Lind-Ritzville, 54-44, in the teams' lone regular season contest Jan. 16.

"They're going to play real hard. We're going to play real hard," Arlt said. "Both teams have done a good job this year after losing a lot of guys and battling to be in this."