No. 9 Broncos upset No. 2 Morton-White Pass, advance to state semis
LRS senior Hayden Melcher passes the ball to a teammate in the first quarter against Morton-White Pass.
Ian Bivona
LRS senior Hunter Dinkins hit two three-pointers in the first quarter to help the Broncos take a 13-11 lead after the first eight minutes of action.
In front of his home crowd, LRS junior Brock Kinch looks for an open teammate.
LRS senior Chase Galbreath, in red, goes for a layup against Morton-White Pass on Thursday in the Spokane Arena. Galbreath led the Broncos in scoring with 16 points.
SPOKANE – Foul trouble was present on both sides of Thursday’s state quarterfinals matchup between No. 9 seed Lind-Ritzville/Sprague and No. 2 Morton-White Pass, but the Broncos were able to hold on for the upset and win 51-44.
Morton-White Pass senior Josh Salguero, a six-foot-seven forward, got in foul trouble early in the second quarter allowing LRS to build a lead throughout the game, navigating some foul trouble of their own along the way.
“We did have to battle a little foul trouble today, with Chase (Galbreath) and Jayce (Kelly) – those are the two that you don’t want to be battling foul trouble for us,” LRS Head Coach Dustan Arlt said. “Their big guy (Josh Salguero) got in foul trouble, so that kind of off-set it a little bit.”
Senior Hunter Dinkins hit two three-pointers in the first quarter, which helped the Broncos lead 13-11 after the first eight minutes on Thursday afternoon.
“They didn’t come out on me as hard as Adna did,” Dinkins said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘If they’re going to leave me open, I’m going to shoot it.’ I was glad to see them go in, it sparked our team and it made (MWP) come out farther to give Chase (Galbreath) some opportunities inside.”
However, LRS had some foul trouble of its own against Salguero, as Bronco senior Chase Galbreath recorded two fouls in the first quarter while defending Salguero.
The Broncos switched to a zone defense in the second quarter to help alleviate some of the potential for fouls.
“We switched to the zone, that helped a lot,” Galbreath said. “I just knew I had to be smart and I had to do something to get us going.”
Galbreath opened up the second quarter with back-to-back scoring possessions against Salguero, who recorded his third foul of the game under two minutes through the second quarter and sat the bench for the remainder of the second quarter.
The Broncos saw the opportunity to go on a run, and they did. LRS scored the first eight points of the second quarter and took a 10-point lead with 5:26 remaining on the clock.
After the double-digit lead, LRS found themselves in a scoring drought, which didn’t end until a jump shot by Dinkins with under a minute remaining in the half. Regardless, LRS was able to limit the Morton-White Pass offense to just seven points in the second quarter and took a 23-18 lead into halftime.
The Timberwolves managed to cut the LRS lead to 34-31 midway through the third quarter, but senior Hayden Melcher hit a three-pointer to extend the Bronco lead and give his squad some breathing room. LRS held on to win 51-44 and advance to the state semifinals.
“We did just enough,” Arlt said. “We hit some big shots, never let them get rolling. We haven’t played zone (defense) in a long time either, but with our foul trouble and the size we switched to in that second quarter, it worked so well. They never shot us out of it.”
Galbreath finished the game with a team-high 16 points.
“Chase (Galbreath) was huge for us,” Arlt said. “Got to a point where we didn’t have to chance it as much there in that second quarter. We wanted to attack (Salguero). He’s huge, we know it’s going to be tough on him, but Chase (Galbreath) is a heck of an athlete. He’s got length and size and his quickness, he just needed to attack and attack.”
Two games into the state tournament at the Spokane Arena, the Broncos have upset No. 8 Adna and No. 2 Morton-White Pass.
“You do that to the No. 2 seed as the No. 9 seed – we’re in bonus time right now,” Arlt said. “No one expected us to be here, and here we are. We just keep going and going.”
While some may be surprised by the results, Dinkins isn’t.
“I feel like we should have been ranked higher than ninth, so we’re showing everybody that we belong here by upsetting two teams back to back,” Dinkins said. “We deserve this.”
LRS moves on to face off against No. 5 Brewster on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Bears enter the state semifinals with a 20-6 record
“It’s going to be a great game,” Arlt said. “It’s two eastern Washington, central Washington teams with great traditions. We’re looking forward to playing those guys.”
Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.
