Broncos buck clinging Crusaders

Lind-Ritzville advances in first round of state B tournament

SPOKANE — Three-point shots in the second half got Lind-Ritzville into trouble, but one three-pointer in particular got them out of it.

Down 40-37 with 18 seconds left in the game, Lind-Ritzville's Cameron Stephenson failed to hit a shot that would have tied the game.

"We thought the party was over (at that point) and they were ready to turn the lights out on us," said Lind-Ritzville head coach Dwight Pflugrath.

But Bronco's post Jake Kragt plucked the offensive rebound and kicked it out to forward Nick Ashley who swished a three-pointer to send the game into overtime.

"I had no idea," said Ashley that the shot would go in. "It looked off big time."

The Broncos pulled away in overtime with a 58-48 win over the Riverside Christian Crusaders in the first round of the state B tournament Wednesday.

The Broncos jumped out to an early 11-point lead, but watched the Crusaders whittle it away due in part to poor shooting by Lind-Ritzville from the outside. The Broncos were just 1-8 in the second half from behind the arc before Ashley hit.

"We thought we should have been up by a bunch at halftime," Pflugrath said. "We felt we had some good looks, we just didn't put the ball in the hole."

Guards Jon McPherson and Cameron Stephenson shot 5-19 from the field, rimming mostly perimeter jump shots.

The Crusaders took their first lead of the game with 3:43 left in the third quarter, but the Broncos, who dominated inside the entire game, pulled back ahead with consecutive buckets by Ashley and Kragt.

"We struggled to get the ball to Kragt for a while and finally we got it into him," Pflugrath said, adding that when they did, they found success.

Kragt was 8-10 for 22 points and 10 rebounds. Ashley was 4-7 for 13. The two teams traded the lead until the Crusaders pulled ahead 38-33 with 1:52 left in the game.

The Broncos responded with a half-court trap that yielded two quick baskets, and they pulled close enough to give Ashley the shot that sent it to overtime.

The Broncos parlayed the momentum from his three-ball, scoring the first five points of overtime before the Crusaders took a breath. The Crusaders were forced to use the fouling strategy during the last two minutes, which played right into one of the Bronco's strengths.

"We are a very good free throw shooting team," Pflugrath said. The Broncos hit the shots down the stretch and increases their lead. "For some reason this group of kids gets to a point where they finally settle down and execute," Pflugrath said. "They settled down in crunch time and got the job done." With the win, the Broncos (25-2) advance to play King's West (23-3) at 7:30 tonight.

Pflugrath said his team will have a tough road to the championship game. If they beat King's West, they would face either DeSalles (23-1) or Sunnyside Christian (22-1).

"We're in a bracket where every night is tough," he said. "We looked at it and figured there's going to be two really good teams that won't get a trophy. It's going to be a dogfight."