Broncos clinch fourth

Lind-Ritzville ends this season fourth at state and ready for next season

SPOKANE — Dwight Pflugrath felt that taking fourth at the state B basketball tournament was a good indication of their competition - tough.

After escaping with a win in the first game of the tournament, Lind-Ritzville fell Thursday to King's West 48-45. They held on against DeSales 43-40 on Friday and finally got their biggest win of the tournament with a 67-57 win over Wahkiakum on Saturday to clinch fourth-place.

"My guess is, there might be eight teams that felt they should have had a shot at the state title," the Broncos' head coach Pflugrath said. "That is what made it such a great tournament, we didn't have any easy wins."

And don't let the 10-point margin fool you in the Wahkiakum win, Lind-Ritzville didn't have it easy. The Mules jumped out to a 17-11 lead after the first quarter and put up basket for basket with the Broncos in the fourth quarter.

It was the middle 16 minutes that cinched the victory for Lind-Ritzville, who outscored Wahkiakum 42-26.

Leading the way was Cameron Stevenson, who had 17 points for the Broncos. Jake Kragt added 14 and James Saetre and Drew Phillips came off the bench to score 10 points each in the win.

"Drew and James both really stepped up big today," Pflugrath said. "They went through a hitters slump there for a while and that was the difference was those guys had fresh legs. The last two days, those guys played well and shot over the top."

Trailing 10 points after the third quarter, Wahkiakum never gave in. To start the fourth, Brandon Olsen hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to seven and later, Lind-Ritzville took a timeout with 2:15 left in the fourth and the Mules only trailing 59-52.

Following the timeout, both teams exchanged baskets, before the Broncos went to the free-throw line three straight times, shooting 4-of-6 for breathing room in the final seconds.

Pflugrath said one of his biggest accomplishments in the closing seconds was to get his entire team on the court. Because of the road Lind-Ritzville made to get to the final game, Pflugrath said it became difficult to play his entire team, especially the last game.

"I was sweating it because I had three kids that didn't have their name in the book and step foot on the floor because of the tradition," Pflugrath said.

Besides the tradition, Stevenson said the experience on the court will be handy for next season.

"Experience is the big key because when we come back here next year, we won't be as nervous," Stevenson added.